My first Grandly meeting left me with much excitement and hope! I went home with three takeaway ideas from the event. It was an unexpected surprise to see results so quickly.
My first takeaway was the immediate sense of a common bond with other grandparents whom I had just met. We all expressed a deep longing to see our grandchildren walk with Christ and develop a knowledge of His Word. Our shared prayer was for them to live the full life God wants them to live.
The second main idea I took away was the importance of praying for other grandparents. Together, we are fighting the same reality. Our prayers can help our grandchildren — and our prayers for each other support our efforts as well. We are not in this battle for the lives of our grandchildren alone. We believe God has a good outcome in mind.
After the Grandly meeting, my husband and I had our two grand-girls with us for several days. As usual, we had a fun time and enjoyed their company. It was during this time with them that our third takeaway was fulfilled.
We knew before we went to the Grandly meeting that we wanted to be good grandparents, but we came away realizing we wanted to be strategic grandparents. (The simple awareness that we wanted to be strategic was the first step in becoming strategic! 
During our time with our grand-girls, we put our new awareness into practice and began to act and pray strategically. Before we set off for the day’s adventures we took some time to read God’s Word and talk about it with the girls. Afterwards, we prayed with our granddaughters. It was clear to me that a sense of real joy and peace came over them after our prayer time together. We experienced that same joy and peace the rest of our day (even in the rain storms driving home)!
My husband, Tom, and I are glad to be a part of the growing number of strategic grandparents having an impact on the lives of our grandchildren.
Bonnie and Tom Hudson live in Montgomery Village, Maryland, and have 4 grandchildren.
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