Thoughts for My Children: A Grandfather's Legacy to Those He Loves

By Frank Sanders

My purpose in writing this short book is to share my thoughts with my loved ones, especially the children in my life. I hope these words will be a lasting legacy to my children and grandchildren as they grow up and after I am gone.

None of these thoughts are original or insightful. They are simple truths and ideas. But young people seldom take the time to sit down and think about basic things. As people like me get older, we see young people make mistakes or suffer or destroy relationships and friendships over simple and obvious issues. I have often looked back and wished I had made some small things part of my approach much earlier in my life. I still often wish I could impart some time-gathered wisdom to my children and grandchildren to smooth their path, allow them to avoid mistakes, and give them a long-term perspective in this short-term, short-sighted world. This book is my effort to share some of what I have learned.

These short chapters are not an exhaustive examination of the topics under discussion. Rather they are straight to the point and simple as a grandfather would make the point to a young person who is not excited about sitting down for a long discussion about "meaning of life" issues with Granddad. I hope the young people who read these words will get the gist. For those who need more depth, hopefully, these words will get the discussion started.

I plan to share this book with my grandkids. I hope it will be of interest to them. But just as important, I hope this book will be read and appreciated by many grandparents who love their grandchildren. Maybe my words will give them a chance to have a short discussion with their own loved ones. They can share all or some of the points as they see fit. They can share my thoughts and add to them their own take. If they agree with me, this may be an easy way to share some truth and advice. If they disagree, this will be a good place to begin the conversation.

I pray that once the habit of discussion with their grandchildren is established, they can share other thoughts that are important to them.

God speed,

Frank Sanders

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798886854916

Book preview

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Thoughts for My Children

A Grandfather's Legacy to Those He Loves

Frank Sanders

ISBN 979-8-88685-490-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-544-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88685-491-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Frank Sanders

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Smile

Try

Listen

Lead

Be Nice

The Most Important Decision

Fear

Pray

Faith

Joy

Judgment or Compassion

The Second Most Important Decision

Money

Love Life

Introduce Yourself

Weather

Exercise

Who Made the World

Fun

Divorce

Ask

Read

Witness

Purpose

Risk

Character

Do Your Best

Persecution

Comfort

When Christians Die

Live Music

Priority

Be Grateful

Ends Versus Means

Say Thank You

Be Funny

Good Works

Challenge

Best Day

The Most Important Things in Life

About the Author

For Carter, Colt, Gavin, Logan, Noah, Reagan, and Reid…

People I will love forever!

Introduction

My father died at fifty-one years of age. At the time of his death, he was my father but also my friend. He was too young to pass, but I did not think of him as young. Now I am much older than fifty-one, and it is clear to me that he was much too young.

When he died, my brothers and I were just married and starting families of our own. My wife and I had two young toddlers. Since my father's death, both of my brothers have had more children, and we are all three now grandparents.

My father was a loving man. He loved the Lord. He loved our mom. He loved me and my brothers. I often think that my life would have been much different and much better if my dad had lived to give me advice and get to know my kids and share his love and his wisdom with me and my family.

My father died of cancer. There is nothing good about a painful death from cancer, especially at a young age. I cannot help but think that my father would have loved the grandkids and great-grandkids he never met. And I think they would have loved him. He would have shared experiences and insights and just-odd-thoughts with them that would have encouraged them and enriched their lives. Although tragic, his method of death did provide one small bright spot. Because it was cancer, my dad could see it coming. It gave him time to visit and speak directly with those he loved about what he considered important. He visited all his brothers and sisters to make sure they knew he loved them. He made sure they knew that Jesus was God who died on the cross to pay for our sins and resurrected to give salvation to any and all that would accept that payment alone. He had time to reinforce with them and us that he was headed to a better place.

My dad also wrote letters to my children. He gave those letters to me to pass on to them later. The letters were heartbreaking. They told my children who have no memories of him who he was, what he believed, and that he longed to see them in the future in heaven.

I do not have cancer, at least I don't think I do. I don't plan to pass anytime soon. But as I think of my dad, and I often do, I wonder what he would have told me had he lived to be an old man. What would he have shared with the grandkids he loved and their kids?

I don't have any new revelations from God or any profound life lessons to share. But as you grow older, you gain perspective. You realize some things are important, some things are not important, and some things are just things. You regret the time you wasted on things that you don't care about. You are saddened by your failure to spend time on the things and with the people you do care about. And you are amused by the way your life is shaped and changed and scattered by just being alive on this Earth.

Now that I am older and more experienced, if not wiser, I want to write down some of the insights and thoughts that strike me as interesting. Some may be of interest to others. Some will not. Many may make no sense. Probably most will be amusingly stupid or silly. I hope, in some way, my writings will help those that I love and those that read these words. God speed…

Smile

Smile. Smile as often as you can. Smile even when you don't feel like smiling.

Whenever I walk into a grocery store or a meeting, I automatically notice the people who are smiling. When I see them later, I remember their faces. For some reason, I feel a kinship to people who are smiling. I tend to assume they are nice people for no real reason except they exude a positive feeling.

If they don't respond to a question or say something that I don't agree with or I hear wrong, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Rarely have I introduced myself to a person I noticed smiling and not found them to be pleasant person worth knowing.

Confident, grateful people who are at peace with God and at peace with themselves tend to smile. Their character shows through in their body language and shows on their face.

On the other hand, I tend to naturally avoid people who are frowning or who look like they are angry. Some angry-looking people I have been forced to work with and get to know have turned out to be great folks. Maybe I met them at a bad time. More often they just naturally have a resting stern or unhappy-looking face. But that was still a negative. It took much longer to get to know them. It took several positive experiences with them to overcome the negative first impression. People remember their first impression of you. You want that first impression to be a friendly, positive feeling they get when they look at your confident, smiling face.

Remember, there is a difference between a smile and a smirk. Those folks who look like the cat that just ate the canary are not really smiling; they are gloating. Usually, they are self-centered people that find their joy in the misfortune of others. They are most happy when they can feel like they are doing better and are superior to other folks.

People who grin like a Cheshire cat are crazy. Those folks are usually all happy or all sad. Sometimes within moments. You can never be sure what they are thinking, what is going on in their world, and you really don't want to be too close to them physically or emotionally when their world explodes.

Of course, there are times when you cannot smile. If you smile at sad occasions, you are the rude and crazy one. If you smile when you are not happy, you are a dishonest, fake person.

The key is to be a grateful person who loves the Lord. This world is a temporary event. We are ambassadors for heaven here and not permanent residents. If you are saved and headed to heaven, if you can