If you teach a children’s Sunday school or CCD class, if you lead a midweek Bible club or AWANA group, think about ways you might connect your students with faith-filled older adults. Find or make an opportunity to share faith stories.

If you host an adult Bible study in your home or facilitate such a study at church, consider ways you might use the free resources CTA provides (e.g., devotion, PowerPoint, responsive prayer) to help participants pray and think about the legacy they are building–not just in their own families, but in every place they contribute something of themselves in service.

Encourage all those you lead to remember and honor those whose lives have touched theirs. And encourage them, too, to look for ways Jesus might use them to make a difference in someone else’s life. As Scripture reminds us, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4 KJV).

You are welcome to copy this article for one-time use in your organization as long as you will receive no monetary benefit from it. Please include the copyright line below and submit an actual copy of use to CTA, attention Editorial Manager.

Article used with permission grant #081810 © 2010 CTA, Inc. No duplication of this article is allowed without the express written consent of CTA, PO Box 1205, Fenton, MO 63026. www.CTAinc.com.

The only agenda? Spending time together. We would enjoy wonderful dinners, home-made goodies for breakfast, and lunches out on the town—during shopping adventures. What else would 16 women do in an afternoon? 

I’m so glad I went! We shared stories, pictures, and information about each of our families. We all wrote individual prayer requests in a book so that my aunt of 83 years, a real prayer warrior, could pray for each of our needs or concerns. There were copies of her favorite prayers and poems, collected over the years and now available for us to read and take home.

All of us have a biological family, but being able to put a face with a name and a prayer creates a much greater sense of family. Aunt Irene’s legacy can and will continue with my family. I am looking forward to next year when I can bring my three daughter-in-laws to share in this weekend and the legacy.

Editor’s note: As you plan for your family reunion this summer, consider using some of CTA’s Living a Legacy materials as mementos of the event.  

Grandparents help provide the roots we all need–when we’re young and later on in life, too. Unconditional love. A sense of history and of being part of something bigger than ourselves. A listening ear. A storyteller’s heart. Oatmeal cookies. Lessons in hook-baiting and kite-flying. Grandparents touch our lives in all these ways and more.

If you plan a recognition of Grandparents Day in your church this coming weekend (September 13, 2009), good for you! Thank God for his gift of family and for the legacies each worshiper has received from previous generations.

Check this site if you want to learn more about how Grandparents Day began. Think, too, about offering a simple intergenerational Sunday school event. You might serve home-made cookies and cocoa. Invite each family in attendance to partner with one or two other families. Each family may share 1) ”favorite grandparent stories”; 2) the faith legacy of each family–even if that legacy is beginning with the current generation; and 3) thoughts about 2 Timothy 1:3-7.

As you ponder the Bible text, consider what Timothy’s family must have been like. How must their faith have encouraged the great apostle Paul?! Then ask yourselves, “Who might we as a family encourage?”

One last thought. Be sure to extend a special invitation to widows, widowers, and single seniors to your event. They, too, have a contribution to make, a legacy to leave, as they mentor, teach, and serve as examples in your church.

If you’re like me, you’ve cringed at the thought of not being able to leave your family a larger estate at the end of life’s journey. Let’s face it: we usually associate “legacy” with fame and fortune, clout and capital. Memorial tributes to several celebrities in recent days have done nothing to diminish that view.

Graciously, God has been whispering to me lately that my greatest legacy will be seen in the lives of the children and grandchildren who come after me. The Psalmist instructs us as men to model God’s character and sew his commandments into the fabric of family life … “so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands” (Psalm 78:6-7 NIV).

Wow! I can have an impact on generations yet to be born! Now that’s what I call a legacy.

Dads, we underestimate how much influence we have with in shaping our sons and daughters. Granddads, your role is still valuable. It gives some of us a second chance to follow our heavenly Father’s example in loving unconditionally, sacrificially.

As we commend God’s works to another generation (Psalm 145:4), he will be faithful to grant us a legacy of children who put their trust in him.

Check out CTA’s new Living a Legacy product line for Grandparents Day and other occasions.

Living the Legacy Pen and Bookmark Gift Set

As a child, Marian walked miles with her grandmother, visiting elderly shut-ins in their West Virginia farming community. Those trips inspired her life-long commitment to the elderly. One of Marian’s goals was to educate younger generations to the important contributions senior citizens have made and are willing to make if asked.

Teachers can easily follow suit by finding ways to honor these special people. Even though school will have just started, there are many creative and very simple ways to honor grandparents. For example, teachers can invite grandparents into their classrooms to talk with the kids. Churches often honor Moms and Dads on their special days, so why not extend that celebration by recognizing and thanking God for the gift of grandparents? CTA too offers plenty of meaningful and very affordable Living a Legacy gifts. CTA even offers a free Living a Legacy Ministry Message that you might use as a Sunday message, a devotion, or even an insert in that Sunday’s bulletin. A free bulletin insert that includes a short responsive prayer is also available. For other suggestions or to learn more about National Grandparents Day, visit http://www.grandparents-day.com.