Seize the Season

Guest blog by Lydia Harris
Author of Preparing My Heart for Grandparenting: For Grandparents at Any Stage of the Journey, AMG Publishers, www.PreparingMyHeart.net.

“I had so much fun,” my grandson said as he wearily climbed the stairs in our split-level home.
We had invited three-year-old Peter to our church harvest carnival, and he had spent the evening jumping in inflatable bounce houses and playing games where he earned candy prizes. Peter fell asleep on the way home, but he awoke long enough to drag himself up the stairs and flop into bed.

The next morning he said, “Let’s go back! “I hated to tell him, but . . . “The carnival is over,” I said. “Halloween is only one day?” he asked in a sad voice. Looking into his disappointed eyes, I wished it were longer too.

Now Peter is in middle school, and the season for sleepovers and bouncy inflatables is over. I love the young man he’s becoming, but I miss the little boy. I’m so glad we shared childhood fun while we could.

Peter is our oldest grandchild, and I still have other little ones to build forts with and play dinosaurs. But too soon, I’ll have to grow up and pack away childhood games. Like my grandson, Peter, I’ll think, “Was it only for a day?” My children grew up fast, but my grandchildren are growing up even faster! I need to seize the season today.

My grandkids’ fleeting childhood reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV). “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Physically and spiritually, God designed us to mature.

I don’t ever want to grow up so much that I can’t have fun with my grandkids and future great-grandkids. But I do want to grow up spiritually and put away immature ways. In the scheme of eternity, when God looks at my life, I hope he sees my childish spiritual life as short-as only a day. I want to keep growing.

What about you? How are you seizing the moments and seasons with your grandkids? And spiritually, how can you put aside childish ways and talk, think, and reason more and more like a mature grandparent?