By Cathy Berry

PSALM 127:35 “Behold children are a heritage from the Lord…Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.”

I was reading I Samuel 2-3, where the priest Eli was not a faithful priest and did not instruct his children in the ways of the Lord. Then God judged him and his house by removing him and handing the priesthood to another. 

Chapter three continues with God raising up Samuel from childhood.  Hannah, his mother, couldn’t bear children, but God saw her sorrow, and honored her prayer, and blessed her with Samuel.

Here we see her making a covenant with God.  If He would just give her a boy child, she would lend him to the Lord all the days of his life.  Samuel came into the world in answer to prayer, and was given to God before his birth.  When brought to the tabernacle, after he was weaned, he continued learning to pray.  We see him later coming into his own at a national prayer gathering.  Samuel was Gods provision for the time.

Grandparents, I believe God is calling us to stand in the breach for our grandchildren.  Many of the parents of our grandchildren are missing in action, either through addictions to drugs, alcohol, aids or casualties of war, for a season or for a lifetime.  God’s heart cries out for the children.

It is time for grandparents to rise up and take your place to pray for, teach and prepare your grandchildren for the Lord.  I pray that we neither slumber nor sleep at this critical time for our grandchildren.  If you look at the news, you can’t help but notice the epidemic of rebellion and godlessness happening in every nation.  None of us are untouched by the times.

The Psalmist declares children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior (Ps.  127: 35).  They will be the instruments of God’s power and purpose for the future.  I had a vision a few years ago of a mighty army walking shoulder to shoulder, dressed for battle, walking with the word of God in their hand, and out of their mouths were coming flames of fire … the holy spirit is likened in the bible as flames of fire.

Let us, as godly grandparents, pick up our arms in the spirit and go to battle for our little ones.  Watching, praying, and teaching them the Scriptures — the Holy Word of God.  The most important subject should be that which teaches our grandchildren to develop godly characters based on the Word of God.  If our grandchildren do not learn to walk truth because the Word of God is hidden in their hearts and they live it as their lifestyle, every other subject is in vain.  May God bless you and empower you as you walk in your calling as breach-bearers.