Grandmothers!--prayers, goodies and surprises, mending...

The image here is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci showing Jesus with his grandmother--St. Ann--and Mary. (Amazing to think that God had a grandmother, isn't it!)

Recently I have been thinking a lot about grandmothers and their roles and importance in the family. This is partly because I have received some cute, funny emails with lots of quotes about grandparents. Let me share a few of the thoughts with you:

Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting. ~Author Unknown

What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars' worth of pleasure. ~Gene Perret

Grandchildren don't stay young forever, which is good because Grandfathers have only so many horsy rides in them. ~Gene Perret

An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again. Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly. ~Gene Perret

Here are perhaps my favorites:

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete. ~ Marcy DeMaree

And:

Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old. ~Mary H. Waldrip

(There are lots more of these little aphorisms out there...)

Thinking seriously about what we grandmothers can do for our grandchildren--and their parents, our children:

* We can pray for them daily! And when we are with them, we can pray with them.

* When we are with them, we can make sure to take the time to focus particular attention on each child--to shine the full beam of our love on each one, individually. Maybe take each child for a little walk, or some other sort of outing? We want to have a special, personal bond with each of them.

* We can provide special surprises and treats--yummy cookies? brownies? special candies?(There are many other kinds of surprises we can provide as well!) That is part of the great fun of being a grandparent! The point is not to spoil our grandchildren or to undercut their parents' discipline, but just to bring in something special. I know my children remember with loving gratitude the goodies my mother and mother-in-law (two wonderful women!) always had waiting when we arrived for a visit.

* Speaking of my mother-in-law: whenever she came for a visit she would say "Bring out your mending"--and she would do it all for me! It was great because of course when the children were young I didn't have time to keep up with the mending, and children's clothes so often get torn or develop holes! I now try to do that whenever I visit my married children.

If you have other thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to add them in the comments.