I heard the most wonderful words this past week – “Nana, I asked Jesus into my heart.”

My heart was filled with joy.

Words cannot express all that we felt. As parents and grandparents who are Christians, our hearts’ desire is to see our family members become members of the Family of God. Both our oldest grandchildren accepted Jesus a into their hearts last week. Their dad prayed with these precious girls aged almost 8 and 6 years old. We are thankful for their parents who have introduced them to God as their heavenly Father and Jesus as their Savior.

I told my granddaughters when talking to them on the phone that I was blessed that they are now my sisters in the Lord as well as my granddaughters. What joy! We are now each our Father’s daughters.

We have prayed for all our grandchildren since we were first aware of their existance inside their mothers’ womb. We pray for their hearts to be open to God and that they would desire to follow Jesus at a young age. Their great grandparents pray for them daily as well as other family members on both sides of their family. All this prayer might seem to guarantee that all our grandhchildren would become Christians. Yet Scripture does not teach that. If it was an automatic result that our children and grandchildren followed Christ, we would not have responded with such joy and excitement at the news of their decision to accept Christ as Savior.

John 1:11-13 (KJV)

11 He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

This Scripture makes it clear that we become part of God’s family by “believing on His name.” That means believing all that God’s name or charactor involves. Now each grandaughters’ journey as a Christian begins. Our responsibility is to encourage them, pray for them, and live as godly examples by following Jesus ourselves.

We will make mistakes. When this happens, we must ask forgiveness. By living honest, transparent lives before our children and grandchildren we allow them to see that following Jesus is not always easy, nor is it without suffering. In fact, if we follow Jesus we WILL have trials and difficulties. The good news is that we have the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk with God.

The above picture includes my grandmother (on the left) in the lap of her grandmother. Notice the tents in the backgound? They are at a camp meeting of the Methodist church in 1898 when my grandmother was two years old. What a rich heritage I have of godly women who have been followers of Jesus! Our granddaughters are now part of a lineage that we trust will continue until Jesus returns.

You may not have that heritage of Christian relatives. It is a blessing – but it is NOT what causes children to desire to follow Jesus. Children desire to become Christians because they sense God’s Spirit in their hearts and want to accept His love for themselves. YOU may be the start of a line of those who walk with God.

Let your light shine before your children and grandchildren – God is faithful! My heart is full of joy!