“My granny is a saint,” the young man said as we chatted. I had just met him and was somewhat uncomfortable in his presence.
My granddaughter met me at Dairy Queen for our Blizzard; Jonah tagged along. “A good friend. He’s always showing up,” Amanda said. I told my husband later that I felt something wasn’t right about him following her. He called her his Bella.
Little did we know that in a few weeks he would be arrested for murder. The detective informed Amanda’s parents he had stalked her, but she was naive and didn’t realize it. The detective said the young man had many pictures of Amanda from childhood until recently on his social media page.
The night of the shooting, a small group of young people were hanging out at Jonah’s home. Someone passed around a gun. Amanda’s stalker grabbed the gun and pointed it at her. She threw up her hand and said, “Get that away from me.” He pointed it at another young man and pulled the trigger. They all saw it happen.
We didn’t know if this high school stalker really was a Christian or not. He had a praying grandmother, but that didn’t mean he had a personal relationship with God. It doesn’t work that way.
If you had a praying grandmother you are blessed. Both Timothy’s mother and grandmother had faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul believed Timothy was a believer too. He was following in his family’s faith.
My own grandmother prayed for her seven children and no doubt for her numerous grandchildren. After she moved out of the Tennessee hollows, she didn’t miss many opportunities to be at church services.
Though she and my mother prayed for me, I had to make a personal decision to follow Christ. Each generation, each individual, must personally come to his own commitment.
I can teach my grandchildren about God, live a godly life before them, and urge them to accept Christ as their Savior, but they don’t become Christians because Mamaw is one.
God has no grandchildren. He only has children. Even though we inherit ideas and values from our parents and grandparents, we are each responsible for our own faith in Jesus Christ. Choose to be God’s child.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Phyllis Qualls Freeman is a freelance writer with twenty years’ experience and more than four hundred published devotions, magazine articles, and newspaper human-interest pieces. She lives near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Answered Prayers, and several anthologies. She writes devotions on assignment and enjoys mentoring new writers.