Charlie Brown will turn seventy-eight on October 30th.
Imagine him sitting at Lucy Van Pelt’s outdoor psychiatric booth. “The doctor is IN” reads the handmade sign. Charlie is looking at his smartphone, worried that Google can read his mind, and says: “Do you think Google knows what I’m thinking?” Lucy, the same as ever, responds, “Charlie, no one cares what you’re thinking! Five cents, please.”
“Good grief!” Charlie mutters to himself.
We all have a little of Charlie Brown’s despairing feelings inside of us.
Maybe we see the latest unbelievable trend in youth culture. Maybe it’s a new documentary on the rising rate of suicide among preteens, or maybe it’s a YouTube video on how to get revenge on an ex-boyfriend.
“Sigh.”
I have a lot of friends who are grandparents. Many of them are concerned about the spiritual welfare of their grandchildren, but feel helpless to do much about it. Some of them have grandchildren who are barely trained in the basic morality virtues of honesty, unselfishness, reliability, and kindness. Others have tweens who cannot recite the Lord’s Prayer. Some have grandchildren who have never been to church and whose only understanding of Jesus comes from mall music at Christmastime. In their minds, Jesus Christ is put in the same category as Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, and the Easter Bunny.
“Sigh.”
Should we be surprised by such a response? No, not if we remember our grandparents’ reaction when the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. They thought the world had gone mad.
However, no situation is hopeless in the eyes of God. Peter would not have inspired your faith if your first encounter with him was when he was vehemently denying he knew the Lord. Mary Magdalene had seven demons besetting her and probably wouldn’t have been your best friend forever. Paul was putting to death the early leaders of the Church. Which of us would have put him on our short list of potentially great Christians? Who knows what our grandchildren will do or be in this life? We won’t know the end of their stories in our lifetime.
We may be tempted to think our contribution is small and doesn’t matter, but when we give what we can with love, it does make a difference. We must do what we can, and let God use that for his purposes, trusting we will see the results someday from above the clouds.
This article was adapted from the book, The Strategic Grandparent, by Michael Shaughnessy. You can buy it online here.
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