When we began Grandly there was something we were convinced about. A friend reminded me of this recently. “Everything Grandly does starts with thinking differently.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“If you don’t change the way you are thinking, you will never change the way you are acting… I didn’t get this the first time you told me about Grandly. You said, ‘Grandparents need to “think differently, pray specifically and act strategically.’”
He was right, I did say that and have said it thousands of times since to others.
He continued, “I didn’t change the way I was thinking. So, I didn’t change the way I was praying or acting. – I was praying but not very specifically. – I have a lot of grandchildren. All I had done was make a list and pray that God would bless each of my grandchildren. That was it. James got the same prayer as Caitlyn and Tommy. I rifled through my list. Piously, of course – as piously as you can when you are distracted.
“Then one day I realized I wasn’t thinking differently in spite of faithfully reading Grandly’s numerous articles on the subject. Nor was I praying ahead – for the issues that would be coming up, like school bullying for a grandson, or beginning to date for my granddaughter, or starting kindergarten for the twin sons of my daughter. Just asking God to bless them was a bit anemic. It wasn’t very motivating either. Once I started asking myself about what my grandchildren really needed, it was easy to pray specifically for exactly that, and then to be even more exact. I didn’t stop at ‘having good teachers.’ I prayed for a life-long love for learning, grounded in good habits of study.
“Well, guess what?”
I raised my hands, yielding him the floor.
“Now I never ask my grandson, ‘How is school?’ I ask him, ‘What is the thing your teacher is most excited to teach?’ That leads him to think and talk.”
As you begin 2026, might I suggest that you tear up a lot of your old prayer list and rethink it? Ask yourself, what new challenges are likely in store for each of my grandchildren? Pray specifically for those challenges and plot out strategic actions for each.
Think…Pray…Act!
If you are going to do grandparenting, … Well, you know…
Mike Shaughnessy is the founder of Grandly