Leaving a Godly Legacy (+ a Reflection on my Grandparents’ Lives)

I have cards from my grandparents, and all of them would have included Bible verses. 

They did their best to pass that faith legacy on to their children. My parents also passed that desire to follow Jesus on to us. I have a rich spiritual heritage that I don’t take for granted.

Of course, we have to continue building our own faith, and sometimes even “remodel” some of what previous generations believed. But the spiritual foundation we have from that legacy can not be taken for granted.

Leaving a godly heritage or legacy for our children means we must love and show Christ through our daily life, not just our words. There can be no hypocrisy. Our children know our real character.

We will be imperfect, but we must not be inauthentic. Hypocrisy is the biggest destroyer of a Godly legacy.

Psalm 74:3-4 says, “Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

If you have received a Godly legacy, don’t hide it from your children. Show them His wonderful works!

“The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7 says Just men walk in integrity and their children are blessed after them. Again, there can not be hypocrisy.

You are doing a hard but important job, that of starting a new path for your future generations. Don’t be discouraged. There always needs to be someone who starts building on the foundation of Jesus. 

Your love for God is the best gift you can give your children. You are in no way less than someone with Christian parents and Grandparents. And everyone has to decide for themselves, even those with a Christian foundation. 

My parents and grandparents weren’t perfect, but God used them. He can do the same for you.

Don’t give up when you feel unqualified. Imperfect parents can still leave a Godly legacy. All that is required is loving God with all your heart and following His Word with no hypocrisy.

When I joined her large family, she took me in as another granddaughter. I still don’t know how she managed to make each of us feel seen.

Nowadays she would be considered somewhat legendary as she and her husband (for over 60 years, whom I also greatly respected but who left us two years earlier) raised 12 children to adulthood. She also had a stillborn baby and several miscarriages.

Besides that, she sewed all their clothes when they were growing up (yes, underwear, pants, shirts, dresses, etc.) She cooked from scratch and could make up her own cakes without any recipe. They also moved to Costa Rica when they were still growing a family. It was on a mission to spread the love of Jesus, but I don’t doubt a lot of it was hard work, especially back then without the communication and conveniences we have today.

She has many grandchildren (one of whom I have been blessed to be married to), and a large number of great-grandchildren that continues to grow every year. Most of them are still seeking to follow Jesus and live well, which is a true testament to her success in life. She and her husband kept a list of everyone’s names and often said they prayed for us all.

As superwoman as she seemed, she was human too. I wish she was still around so I could ask her about that time she had a mental breakdown and ended up being hospitalized. I have just heard bits and pieces of the story, but it was after her fourth baby in less than 5 years. This baby was very colicky and cried a lot for the first six months.

It makes me feel a bit more okay that I sometimes struggle with my own sanity after having four in just under six years, but even so, I don’t need to be doing all our sewing, nor using cloth diapers full time.

Her fifth child was my own dear mother-in-law.

We lived two hours away, but her health treatments in the last years were near our area so we were blest to have her around regularly. She had a sense of humor and a twinkle in her eyes even in those times when she didn’t feel the best.

I remember once when she was at our place and we were looking at our hamster, she turned to her daughter-in-law who brought her over and said, “Do you know that if you pick up a hamster by its tail, its eyes will fall out?” The twinkle in her eyes gave the joke away, because hamsters don’t have tails! (Now, they really do have tiny stubby tails, but it was still a good joke from a dear, old lady.)

She kept up her sewing almost till the end even when her eyesight was failing. She sewed a dress for me in her last month or two, and it was special for me as long as it lasted.

She was also very frugal. A couple of months before she passed away, someone got her a new canister set. The old sturdy Tupperware one was too hard for her to open and close the lids anymore. She did not like the idea of the set going out to the machine shop for screws and such, because it was still in perfectly good condition, even though it didn’t look exactly new anymore. We told her to send it our way. I think I never got the chance to tell her that I set it up in my kitchen as I didn’t have any canister set. It still suits me well, and I like that I have another touch of hers in my kitchen.

Then she got Covid. She preferred going to the hospital, even if at that time no one could be with her. Mercifully, I think she was unconscious in her last hours. And mercifully for her family’s sake, a friend who was pretty sick at the time and later recovered was in the same room when she took her last breath. He was able to tell us all how the last couple of days and hours in the hospital had gone. Even there her restful spirit knew she was ready to meet her Maker and husband, and she was an inspiration to others fighting for their lives.

I like to think that today she is one of the ones taking care of my own angel baby, as well as the other children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that have joined her in heaven for various reasons.

For years I prayed that I would have a chance to take my family and present them to her. If it didn’t happen earth side, I could do it in heaven someday. But I did so want the opportunity to show her my husband and the four great-grandchildren that are hers through me here yet.

Last year my husband and children got their Canadian visas approved. Through answered prayers and special gifts, we got the long-dreamed-of, prayed-for, trip to see my Grandma and the other extended relatives.

I have been thinking of how grandmas are like the last tie between earth and heaven, the last link in the chain, just before it breaks and slips behind the misty veil of life beyond death. Perhaps I feel it more with my Grandma, as she was the last of my children’s great-grandparents earth side.

My Grandma was like the family tie. Every year out there in Canada they held the Christmas family gathering for my mom’s side of the family. Every year she make her special Christmas dinner recipes, and still helped on her last earthly Christmas.

Every year she wrote down everyone’s names on masking tape and stuck them on the small bags of candy and goodies she made for all her descendants. (They are called “tootyis” in our Low German dialect.) She got help of course, because by the end she had to make nearly 200!

Grandma had 10 children. Most of them married and had several children themselves, bringing the number of grandchildren (including their spouses so far) to over 70. The great-grandchildren number over 100 already, and I am sure that number will continue growing for years yet.

Most years Grandma even managed to somehow send us all our tootyis, so my children have felt her special touch. Family gatherings certainly won’t be the same if they are continued once she is gone.

She made each of her grandchildren a blanket. I treasure mine, as well as some tiny booties she knitted.

Grandma was fairly healthy for most of her years. Back for her 86th birthday she went and bought herself a car. Not many Grandmas that age would have done that.

What is it that makes a Grandma so special? What made me want to see her just one more time and show her my family? What makes extended families keep coming together year after year, even when some of us hardly know each other anymore?

I think it is something special that God gives to grandmas. They are like a tie to our past and what shaped us, as well as the closest link we have to our future in heaven.

Of all God’s gifts to me, my Grandma is one that was pretty special, something not everyone gets for so long. See you in heaven soon, Grandma!

What legacy of faith are you leaving for your children? Or what is your favorite grandparent story? Let me know in the comments below.