Team Grandparents Blog

This is a good time to invite parents and grandparents to fill little plastic eggs with candy and scripture verses. The eggs can be sent to college students or grandchildren who live out of town, attend a different church, or may not go to church. Oriental Trading company has candies with Bible verses that are perfect for this type of project. Christ Community Church in Lemont will be doing their March event on March 7th at 10:45 am after the morning service -friends and members are all invited.

Thank you to Pastor Parrish for this prayer to use the first Sunday of February:

LEADER: Hear these words from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Eph. 3:16-19

LEADER: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the riches, and the glory.  We praise you for who you are, and we thank you for the blessings that we have in you.  Our life is in you; when we have you, we have all that we need.  We pray this morning, God, that we will know the depth of your love, that we will be grateful, and that we will let others know that you are the great and true God.

GRANDMOTHERS:  As we pray for our grandchildren this morning, we pray for roots that go down deep in the soil of your love and your truth.  As they experience life with you, help them to know that you can be trusted and that you have the words of life.

GRANDFATHERS: We pray that our grandchildren will be well rooted in values that will help them to make decisions that honor you every day of their lives.

GRANDMOTHERS: We pray that the roots of our grandchildren’s faith will grow deeper through their relationships with friends and adults in their homes, in their communities, and in your Church.

GRANDFATHERS: We also pray that our grandchildren will have strength and empowerment that come through your Spirit.  We pray that they will know your strength so that even when they are weak, they will be strong in you.

GRANDMOTHERS: We pray that our grandchildren will have strength and empowerment against the stresses, challenges, and adversities that they face at home, at school, and with friends.

GRANDFATHERS: We pray that our grandchildren will have strength and empowerment through your Spirit to resist the devil because we know that when we resist the devil he will flee from us.

GRANDMOTHERS:  We pray that our grandchildren will have strength and empowerment to be good witnesses for you as they live for your holiness.

SILENT PRAYER FOR OUR OWN GRANDCHILDREN

LEADER: We thank you, Strong Tower, for your love and your empowerment.  We pray that each one of us and all of the people who we care about will know that we are complete in you with the fullness of life and power that come from you.

ALL: In your great name we pray.  Amen.

NEXT MEETING: MARCH 7^TH JOIN WITH GRANDPARENTS PRAYING FOR ALL OUR GRANDCHILDREN

Grandparents – a great web site is:
www.ChildrenSermons.com
Nice to print out for our grandchildren, particularly if a grandchild does not attend church regularly. Nice to have in your home or to give to a grandchild to read before they go to bed at night or with you when they visit.

Pray for all our grandchildren to feel the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to learn more about Christ and their faith every day. Pray for our grandchildren to be protected by their faith and by courageous grandparents who speak up against those things that threaten the safety of our grandchildren.
Google www.willcountyao.com – James Glasgow to read how our electronic age, while bringing great opportunities in the lives of our grandchildren, needs to be monitored for their safety.

“According to federal law enforcement authorities there is an unprecedented growth in child pornography in the U.S. because of the Internet. Today the virtual playground of cyberspace affords these sexual predators the opportunity to engage children putting our grandchildren at high risk.”

WHAT TO DO: Keep the family computer in a central location where the child or teen is not isolated and learn Internet technology in order to better monitor our children’s online activity – as well as TM (text messages).

Team Grandparents,
This is a good time to meet together to plan for the 2010 focus of your group. Keep our grandchildren in prayer as they begin to return to school. Never forget how powerful your prayers are in their lives as they grow in the faith.

As our world eliminates Christ from the reason we celebrate Christmas take a stand in your home and neighborhood. Just as in Exodus 12 the Israelites painted their doorposts as a sign that they were believers, “paint” the doorpost of your home by placing a nativity set in your window, on your lawn, your porch, or your car (kcnativitysets.com).  Amidst  the snowmen and reindeer and non-religious symbols of a secular celebration, take this opportunity to reclaim the true meaning of the Christmas holiday.

As grandparents we have an opportunity to teach our grandchildren and our neighbors the real meaning of Christmas. We can share the greatest story ever told of Christ’s miraculous birth, death and resurrection that gives all believers eternal life.  Get your nativity set out and let the world know that “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Here are members of  Team Grandparents at Christ Community Church in Lemont, Illinois preparing care packages of cookies and other goodies to send to our college students, our grandchildren in the military, our grandchildren in trade schools, our grandchildren who are recent graduates and are starting their first jobs or looking for a job.

Any grandparent who was interested signed- up their grandchild at the church and a package was prepared and sent on October 25th.

We wanted to show the young adult grandchildren how proud we are of them and that they are in our prayers.

Consider doing a care package project in your home church and make sure they know the grandparents of the church have them covered in prayers.

Grandparents, October is a great month to organize a Team Grandparents cookie sending project in your home church.

So many of our older grandchildren are away at school and would love to get home made cookies with a note reminding them that grandparents are praying for them and that they are loved by us and the Lord. Don’t forget to send a box of cookies to grandchildren who have recently graduated and are now starting a new job, or looking for a job, or grandchildren beginning Trade School programs.

Send them your love!

One of our pastors, Pastor Dave Parrish, wrote this lovely prayer that any grandparent may want to pray when they think about their grandchild starting university or college, trade schools, or beginning their first job:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:1-13)

We come to You in prayer, God of heaven and earth and all of the created order. We know that You have created us to live for the praise of Your glory. We pray that we will be seekers after Your heart, that we will know Your plans for us, and that we will always put Your ways before our own.

As we gather to pray as grandparents, we pray that our own grandchildren and our spiritual grandchildren in this church will know Your plans for them. This time of year is full of transitions. Some children are starting school for the first time, others are entering a new school building and are separated from friends. Others have made the transition from life at home with family to life in a college setting. Still other grandchildren have finished their formal education and are making a transition into the work world.

We pray that our grandchildren will seek Your way with every step they take. We pray that our grandchildren in elementary school, middle school, and high school will know Your great love for them, that they will discover the wonder and order of Your creation, that they will seek You at every turn, and that they will be bold to live for You. Starting college brings exciting opportunities along with stresses and temptations. In the time that we have had with them, we tried to teach our grandchildren to live for You, yet we know that many college students “set their faith on the shelf” and distance themselves from You.

We pray that our college students will love Your ways, will be drawn to near to You, and will learn what it means to live for You. We also pray that they will find Christian mentors and friends who can help them navigate rocky currents. We pray for grandchildren who are starting new jobs. In their careers, help them to look for ways to honor You and to keep a proper balance on their priorities and interests. We also pray for graduates who are still seeking employment. In this time of high anxiety, let them know that You have plans to bless and prosper them and that You will make all things clear in Your time and according to Your plan.

Sovereign Lord, protect our grandchildren from all harm and allow them to live out the fullness of the days You have planned for them. Amen.