What Will Their Future Be?

There are six of them, the oldest 4 and the youngest 4 months. Three girls. Three boys. All of them my grandchildren.

They were all together for Easter, at our house in Columbus, Ohio. And I, grandpa, took their pictures all dressed up for Easter services at Maranatha Baptist Church. And when I looked at the picture later when they had all returned to their respective homes, I began to think about them, and specifically about their futures.

What kind of world will they live in? What will they have to pay for a gallon of gas, or a loaf of bread, or a house to live in? What will it cost them to go to college? What will each of them do with the life that has been given to them?

But these are not the real issues that concern me. The world changes, that is a certainty. But I am more interested in what faith they will have. I wonder about their relationships with God and their faith in Jesus Christ.

They are all being raised in Christian homes by parents who have personally trusted Jesus Christ and are actively ministering to their children in the Christian faith. All six of them are in church regularly, four of them at Maranatha where my wife and I are members, and two of them at a Baptist church in Michigan. They all have strong Christian influences in their lives.

But I wonder if any of them will stray when they get older. I wonder if any of them will meet someone who does not share their faith in Christ and be adversely influenced by that person. I wonder if the world they grow up in will cause them to doubt the goodness of God. I wonder if any of them will simply not have faith in Christ when they reach adulthood.

I am convinced my daughters and their husbands are all working hard to influence my grandchildren for the Lord Jesus. But each of my grandchildren have little minds of their own, which they often express in opposition to a parental command. "Eat your vegetables" is sometimes followed by a stubborn "No" even now. What will they say "No" to when they are no longer under their parents' influence?

I can only do for my grandchildren what I did for my children. I can be an example of the believer to them. And I can pray for them.

Praise the Lord, and with His help, I am doing both.