by Ron and Cathy Berry

The word says, Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. We believe in the word of God wholeheartedly and trust our Lord without question. We also know as the span of time runs through our hands, our children for a season sometimes sway to the ways of the world.

We are at this time in our lives where we trust the Almighty without question and lean hard on his word.

At this moment in time, where we have had to lay our daughter at the feet of Jesus, we were also given the divine purpose to train up our six year old grandson, Bradley. We have had him since the age of two. The challenges at the beginning were trial and error, and a lot of praying and tears; as he came from an abusive home life. He had been through and seen more than most adults see in a lifetime, but our God is faithful and not lacking in mercy and healing!

We couldn’t attend church for almost a year because his language was so bad. I left my job as a prayer counselor at a worldwide ministry, to spend the much needed time for his healing and training.

Now, four years later, we marvel at the young arrow that God placed in our hands. We take communion together in our home every night. At first Bradley listened, as we tenderly told him what the sacraments meant and why we did this. We would also pray a short prayer afterwards, and then bedtime. Now, a year later, we still do communion nightly, but our prayer time has become much longer, as our grandson has taken it over. During prayer time the other night, Bradley said, “Bow before the King!” He bowed down, as if to show us how. Oh, the joy that filled our hearts and the awe of such a moment. We felt as if heaven was looking down and kissing us! We were beginning to see the fruit of our faithfulness.

Grandparents may God bless you as you are faithful to the work that God has placed in your hands! A tender, forgiving and merciful father is He. We have all come from different backgrounds, having good and bad earthly fathers, but we can rest and trust in our Heavenly Father as our guide, model, comforter and friend. The Bible says He is our ever present help in times of trouble. We encourage and bless you, as we travel together down this road of grandparenting our grandchildren, training them up in the ways of the Lord, and pressing toward the high calling!