Our younger generation is doing a better job than some might think

It’s late Sunday evening and I just received a phone call from my son James who is with his wife at Lovelace Women’s Health Center in Albuquerque.

James, our youngest son, and his wife, Leslie, are expecting their first child tonight or tomorrow. This will be the ninth grandchild, Lord willing, for my wife, Cindy, and me.

We married young (I was 20, she 19) and had three sons. When we moved to Georgia in 1983, the oldest was only 11 years old. Now we have three grandsons, five granddaughters and, if the technician read the results correctly, another girl will join the family in a matter of hours. I never thought that, at age 55, I would have nine grandchildren.

Grandchildren are funny creatures. They cause stern, disciplinarian parents to become people who are loath even to correct the grandchildren for any offense short of murder. Parents who would never buy Sugar Smacks for their own kids will load up on all sorts of sugar-laden cereals, candies, and cookies for the children of their children. They cause us to become somebody else, as all three of my sons will readily attest.

Here’s what I have learned about the meaning of grandchildren:

• For one thing, grandchildren are God’s way of rewarding you for not killing your own kids when they were teenagers.

Children, especially those achieving independence, can frustrate, anger, and infuriate their parents like no one else can. Children have a way of pushing their parents’ buttons so that normal people become raving, homicidal maniacs. Somehow, we restrain ourselves, the kids survive, and grandkids are the reward.

• Grandchildren means that our existence here on this planet matters. One gets a sense of that truth with our own children, but the arrival of grandchildren lets us know with some measure of certainty that people will live, play, work, and accomplish something on this earth long after we have passed from the scene and, without us, they would not even exist.

Our oldest grandchildren are Victoria (who we call “Tori”), age 11, and Tristan, age 10. In 10 years, they may be married. In 15 years, they may have children. I will be 70 then. While I may see their children, it is very unlikely that I will see their grandchildren, but these children will, in a real sense, owe their lives to my wife and to me. Through them, we temporally live forever.

• Grandchildren mean that there will be a future. I believe that children are God’s way of letting us know that He hasn’t given up on us. With each new birth, potential and possibility springs anew.

This new one may be a future scientist who will discover a cue for a dread disease. Another may be a diplomat or a military leader. Another may be a missionary or a priest-perhaps even a bishop.

Earlier today, our eight grandchildren were at our house for lunch. I wondered, as I watched them play, what they might become in the years to come. I wonder tonight what this new little one who is to be born in New Mexico will do in the future with her life.

In addition to the two I already mentioned, we are blessed with Sam, Isaac, Jackie, Peyton, Eliana, and Cassia. If, indeed, this one we are expecting tonight is a girl, she will be named Addison.

She will have a middle name that I am told is Jean. Actually, she will have two middle names, but the other is undecided at the moment. My wife and I will call her Addie Jean, a good Southern-type name sorely needed in the Far West.

Tomorrow, I intend to fly to Albuquerque for a couple of days to meet and to pray for and bless this new child. I would stay longer but it’s Holy Week and I have services on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and on Good Friday.

But tonight I sit in wonder and awe, much like a child on Christmas Eve who is anticipating a glorious Christmas Day.

The Scriptures teach that children are a blessing from God. Tonight, as I think about my sons, my daughters-in-law, and the abundance of grandkids, I am feeling wonderfully and abundantly blessed, indeed!