Bible memory verses for our children and grandchildren are so important for a variety of reasons. One that is especially important during the season of Lent is to give them wise words to use to share the Good News of Jesus' precious gift of salvation with friends.

A young friend and I were discussing this last week. He shared his favorite verse for just this purpose, John 14:14, and I shared my favorite, Romans 10:9. We thought combining the two would be a great Word-Filled Wednesday to share with YOU and your Sandwich Generation family.

Jesus said, "You may ask Me for anything in My Name and I will do it.

John 14:14

If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God rased Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9

What's your favorite Bible verses for sharing with others – children or adults? We'd love to know. Also, don't forget, you can find more encouraging and comforting Bible verses and pictures at Internet Cafe Devotions on this Word-filled Wednesday. Wait til you see Amy's lovely April calendar for your computer wallpaper! Those can be a great way to share encouraging Bible verses with your children and grandchildren without ever saying a word.

P.S. Do your grandchildren or children have a good Bible? If you are looking for one, you might want to consider this NIV Adventure Children Bible – geared for ages 9-12. My grandkids love theirs. It has the full NIV version of the Bible, along with colorful maps, a concordance, facts about each of the books of the Bible. It's a great way to get them in the habit of using a "study Bible" on a regular basis – one of the best habits ever!      

Kaye

My grandkids and I have finally started doing our Resurrection Easter Eggs together. I was quite pleased that they are still enjoying both the fun of hunting for them, as well as helping me tell what Easter means – Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. I was also happy that they have remembered so much from last year, while glad we have started early to help them relearn the parts they forgot.

Each time I work through the Resurrection Easter Eggs with them, I try to really focus on one or two different aspects of the Easter story. Today we talked about how sad it was that one of Jesus' closest friends, Judas, betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver. We also talked about how much pain Jesus endured – from the horrible beating of the whip, to the crown of long thorns being jammed into his head, to the crucifixion itself, complete with nails going through his hands and feet. Even at 6 and 7, they seem to understand, to some extent, how much that must have hurt. And then I remind them that Jesus is GOD. If He had wanted to, He could have snapped His fingers, been back in heaven in a heartbeat, and been through with all that pain and suffering.

I looked at them and asked, "if He had done that, what would have happened to us? Where would we go?"

"To hell!" they cried out together.

"That's right," I replied. Wasn't it wonderful that Jesus was willing to suffer and die for us, so that we could receive Him into our hearts and be saved!"

With huge smiles on their faces, they agreed. And now I'm wearing a huge smile on my heart as well.

One of the most important parts of our job as grandparents is to join with our families to pray for, share with, and encourage our grandkids to follow Paul's wonderful directions in Romans 10:9-10:

If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Another important part, once they have been saved, is to continue to pray for, share with and encourage our grandkids to walk with our precious Lord. As Paul said, in Colossians 2:

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge…just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Isn't that also a wonderful purpose for Sandwich Generation grandparents! It's on my heart to do this with both my long distance and my close up grandkids, and I love the way fun tools, like the Resurrection Easter Eggs, help me.

What are some of the ways you encourage your grandkids to know more about Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection during this Lent and Easter season?  We are always looking for more ideas and tips.  

Old-time TV. My senior parents grew up on it and my mom continues to enjoy the programs from back in the 40s and 50s. I still have fond memories of Our Miss Brooks and Father Knows Best. What I just learned was that apparently they. along with many other programs, started out on the the radio before eventually landing on TV where I discovered them. Even more interesting is that iTunes has a wide variety of these shows available for free! Perfect for a Sandwich Generation senior home care giver and grandparent.

While doing some research, I discovered Old Time Radio. Just go to iTunes, iTunes store, and in the top right search box, type in Old Time Radio. You should see a handful of the podcasts they offer along with the words "See All." Click "see all" and you will be delighted to see:

• Old Time Radio Nostalgia
• Old Time Radio Comedy
• Old Time Radio Drama
• Old Time Radio Mysteries
• Old Time Radio Scifi
• Old Time Radio Shows
• Old Time Radio Thrillers
• Old Time Dragnet
• The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
• Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod
• My senior dad's favorite genre – Westerns!
• And so many others

Most are listed as Kids & Family, so I would assume they would, indeed, be fine for every age, but, of course, it's always wise to check them before letting the grandkids listen. All of the above have that listing except Dragnet, which is under Arts. There are several other options that are actually being developed as a current project, which may have more language and other issues than the "Old Time" shows, so we're sticking with the oldies.  

Just to give you a tiny flavor of what you will find:

• Jack Benny
• The Shadow
• Superman
• The Life of Riley
• A Date with Judy
• Maxwell House Coffee Time
• Blondie
• The Bob Hope Show
• Fibber McGee and Molly
• Family Theater
• CBS Radio Mystery Theater
• Dr. Kildare
• Mister I.A. Moto
• The Fat Man
• The Falcon
• Mystery Playhouse
• Gangbusters
• Inner Sanctum Mysteries
• Hallmark Playhouse
• And many, many more.

For a Sandwich Generation senior home care giver and grandmother, who is also a full-fledged member of the Baby Boomer Generation, these Old Time Radio Shows brought back so many fond memories, including times spent with my dad and mom when I was very young, laughing our heads off over Eve Arden and her co-stars in Our Miss Brooks. 

Best of all, they are all FREE (always one of my favorite ways to save money), and I've subscribed to most of them. Once a week, I go through and pick a few from each of the categories and copy them (burn them) to CDs for my senior mom to enjoy on her beloved CD player. She has throughly enjoyed them. They are bringing back terrific memories, giving her a nice alternative to TV re-re-reruns, and "exercising her brain" – always a good thing.

They are also handy for those times when I'm going to be away for longer periods. Making up several of these CDs gives my senior mom a special treat and the cost is low since a 50-pack of CDs runs me about $15, or less if I find them on sale. That's only about 30 cents per CD. iTunes is such a wonderful resource for all of us in the Sandwich Generation, from our oldest senior parents to our youngest little grandkids! I love that you can Download thousands of popular radio programs on iTunes. Not to mention great music, sermons, business podcasts, and so much more!  How about you? Have you found any other interesting  old-time radio or TV shows online? We'd love to hear about them.

For many of us Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents, our schedules are not our own. We make plans, someone gets sick, there go the plans! In reality, though, they should never be our own. As a few wise pastors have taught me down through the years, my goal each day is to surrender myself, my life, AND my schedule to God. I've been doing that for years and never regretted it.

As David reminds us in Psalm 31:14-15b, "I trust in You, O Lord; I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hands!" (NIV) 

Those words have been a rock for me in many traumatic storms throughout my life, including as a Sandwich Generation senior home care giver and grandma. I have been blessed to have them memorized for those moments when I so desperately needed them!

For more wise words of encouragement  for the Sandwich Generation, along with interesting and intriguing pictures, please visit Penny Raine where you will find plenty of wonderful inspirational Bible verses to encourage and inspire you on this Word-Filled Wednesday.  :)

My senior mom and I had a delightful Saturday afternoon at Michael's this past week. After writing about Easter, Easter crafts, and Resurrection Easter Eggs, I was really "In the Mood!" (Boy, first a Gershwin tune, now it's Glen Miller on my brain. You can tell I still love the songs I used to enjoy with my grandparents AND my senior parents. ) I found several fun projects for my grandkids and myself to have fun with, particularly during this season of Lent and Easter.

I started remembering how much we enjoyed doing weekly projects that led to my weekly Advent posts last December, as part of Troc, Broc, and Recup's "A Pause In Advent." "Wouldn't it be nice to do something similar for Lent," thought I.  That led to me popping over to visit Floss and see what she was up to. There I discovered she'd already thought of this idea and started it last week! How grand! Naturally, I signed right up.

Each Monday between now and Easter, I'll be posting about ways my grandkids and I will be preparing for Easter. As with Advent, my focus will be on Easter arts and crafts with my grandkids, with music and conversation about Easter woven through our time together. You'll also find a link to Floss', Troc, Broc, and Recup, where you will then find links to several other bloggers who are also talking about Lent – from a traditional and somber focus of Lent to my more relaxed, grandkid focus, and plenty more ideas in between. I'm looking forward to reading what others are doing and thinking, all around the world, during this special time.

It will be a wonderful way to keep our eyes, and our grandkids' eyes, fixed on Jesus and on the cross during this Lenten season, and help to teach them more about what Easter means. It's so important for them to know the importance of Jesus Christ and His resurrection and this is a great way to supplement all that they get at home and church.

While at Michaels, my senior mom and I found some cute little wooden cross magnets in different shapes. They were only $1 for a package of three so I bought several of them. I'll be mailing some off to my sweet long distance grandkids and taking the rest over to my local grandkids. Instead of the enclosed markers, they'll have fun coloring them with the Crayola washable markers I am never without! (By the way, you can ) The older grandkids might enjoy these wooden cross magnets on their school lockers and the younger ones will love to see them adorning their refrigerator. Working on them will be a perfect time for my Lent and Easter playlist, so I have to be sure I get that done this week!

What about you and your grandkids? Do you have any fun Easter month traditions together? We'd love to hear about them. And don't forget to sign up for the FREE SandwichINK email for more fun holiday resources and ideas for Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents.

As a Sandwich Generation senior home care giver and grandmother, I have plenty of good days and more bad days than I would like – from concern for an elderly parent who is sick to frustration over trying to help a grandkid with math when my own arithmetic skills aren't the greatest (to say the least ) to just plain being tired and cranky due to not enough sleep. 

Yesterday was definitely one of "those" days. I was feeling so stressed I put aside my writing project and decided to clean my office. As I did, I turned on some of my favorite praise and worship songs, including Avalon's CD, Faith: A Hymns Collection.

After an hour, my whole mood had brightened from the music and lyrics I had been listening to. Thanks to these praise and worship songs, I had focused on God instead of problems. I spent time praying, confessing my own crankiness, forgiving someone else, and generally spending some quality time with God. As one of their songs, Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee, says:

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

That's exactly how I felt – like a bunched up flower bulb that started relaxing, unfolding, and opening up to God through praise and worship and prayer! It was a wonderful picture of Psalm 16:11, "You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Talk about wonderful and inspirational Bible verses! )

I appreciate it so much when God uses praise and worship songs like these in my life to encourage me and nudge me in the way I should go in this busy Sandwich Generation life. And yes, I was also thrilled that at the end of this "pity turned to praise party" my office was relatively neat and I'd finally found my missing mp3 player full of my oldest grandkid's favorite praise and worship songs including Britt Nicole – The Lost Get Found along with Avalon – Faith (don't you love it when you and and your grandkids love the same music! )

How about you? What are some of your favorite praise and worship songs full of words of encouragement for your tough days? What ones give you words to encourage your elderly parents and your young grandkids? We'd love to hear! We'd also love for you to sign up for the FREE SandwichINK email for more words of encouragement for Sandwich Generation senior home caregivers and grandparents.

Here in Kentucky it's in between snow storms. I decided I wanted a picture to make us think of spring and I found that in this photo. More than that, I saw this flamingo, standing firm in spite of a very gooey situation, reminding me, no matter what gooey Sandwich Generation situation I find myself in, I have to rely on God to enable me to STAND FIRM IN THE LORD!

…Now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 3:8

…Stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. Philippians 4:1

…Stand firm in the faith… 1 Corinthians 16:13

…Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught. 2 Thessalonians 2:15

More than one pastor has pointed out that if God repeats Himself in the Bible, there's a VERY good reason for that.  As a Sandwich Generation grandmother, one of my biggest desires has always been for my kids and grandkids to know and love God with all their hearts, souls, strengths, and minds. Next, once they have done that, I desire for each of us to STAND FIRM IN THE LORD! These are all some of my primary prayers every day! And I am blessed because I know that these are God's desires for us as well, which means I am praying according to His will in all of this. Very encouraging!

What are some of your favorite verses to pray for your children, grandchildren and yourself? 

For more inspirational Bible verses coupled with intriguing pictures, sure to encourage all of us in the Sandwich Generation, be sure to visit Forever His. And don't forget to sign up for the FREE SandwichINK email and get words of encouragement for Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents delivered to your inbox regularly.  

Looking for some interesting Christian fiction to read while waiting at the doctor's office with your elderly parent? How about some historical or contemporary romance novels for those times you are sitting in the car pool pick up line waiting for a grandkid? Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group has several new novels for us to enjoy and you can find out about two of them right here at SandwichINK as we join them for a Value Fiction Blog Tour! What's that, you might ask? It's where several blogs join together to write about new books that might be of interest to their readers. In my case, I'll be reviewing books that might appeal to the Sandwich Generation, as well as the Baby Boomer Generation, their senior parents, and maybe even some kid books for our grandkids.

BENEATH A SOUTHERN SKY by Deborah Raney is an intriguing contemporary novel that will remind many of us in the Baby Boomer Generation of the Doris Day movie, Move Over, Darling. Daria Camfield is a Christian missionary working with her husband, Nate, in South America. She is grief stricken when she is informed of the death of Nate. He had left her behind to provide medical help to people in a native village further away from their mission home base. Once she heard the news, she decided to go back to the states in order to have help from her family with the baby she was expecting. As in Doris Day's movie, time passed, she met another Christian man of high integrity who grew to love her and her daughter, and they were married. 

Three years after her husband's death she and her family are shocked and devastated to learn he had not died after all. Unlike Move Over Darling, this book is not a comedy. Instead it's an interesting Christian novel with substance that realistically portrays mission life along with all the ramifications of this particularly difficult situation. I really enjoyed reading it, especially since it had a solid ending that was very satisfying.

YESTERDAY'S PROMISE, by Linda Lee Chaikin, is a novel similar to the Regency Romances my cousin and I enjoyed when we were young adults, only with more depth. Combining a dashing aristocrat, a sweet and lovely young woman of mystery, and a death that may not have been of natural causes, this has all the ingredients for an enjoyable read, coupled with well-researched historical information for both England and South Africa in the 1800s. It also includes a missionary theme interwoven with the fascinating mystery and, of course, a sweet romance. It's part two of a three part trilogy but it was fine that I hadn't read part one. One caveat to this book if you loan it to an elderly parent. It moves back and forth in time to heighten the suspense. It's a common tactic in many of today's TV shows, but that can make it hard for an aging parent to follow it. I'll be passing it on to my senior mom, but I'll warn her about that so she'll know what to expect. They do a great job of helping you keep track by putting the dates in the top, which I very much appreciated.

Both books combine interesting stories with faith-based plots to make our waiting periods a lot more interesting. I'm recommending them to you and plan to send some as gifts to a couple of my senior adult bookworms. They'll make a great Random Act of Kindness.  For that matter, I bet my sweet cousin will enjoy them along with a couple of my daughters. Definitely good books for all of my Sandwich Generation friends and family.  If you'd like to pick some up as well, you can find them at Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group, who provided these books for this review.  A hearty thank you to them for the blog tour and for providing all of us in the Sandwich Generation with some great reading options. 

As a Sandwich Generation senior home care giver and grandmother, I am blessed with lots of fun grandkid time with each of my grandkids. I do a lot of babysitting, caregiving, and just plain having fun. They occasionally spend the night, but that's about it.

For many Sandwich Generation grandparents, however, that's not the case. There are plenty out there who have full or partial guardianship of their grandkids – whether officially or unofficially. Hero's Ransom, the book I reviewed last week, brought up an interesting point that I wanted to explore a bit further. Briefly, so as not to give away any of the plot, the grandmother found herself in some murky water due to insufficient documentation as her grandkid's guardian. 

That's really easy to do – for any and all of us. Life is unexpected. Everything can be hunky dory one minute and upside down the next. A parent dies, develops a terminal illness, or just takes off unexpectedly, and in the blink of an eye a grandparent can be left to carry on with the grandkid without any legal protection for the grandchild or the grandparent. Depending on the state you live in, without those vital documents, your grandkids might not be able to go to the doctor's, start a new school, or get to stay with you!

It's so important for each of us to stop and think through now, while everything is ok, what do we need to have set up to protect everyone. Hopefully each of our adult kids has a will, along with a designation of guardianship for the grandkids – whether to the grandparents or to someone else, with provision for the grandparents to get to visit. It's also a good idea to have an emergency release form giving doctors permission to treat the grandkids when the parents aren't there, and naming grandparents as temporary guardians in charge of the grandkids – with long expiration dates. Trust me, it's worth reading Hero's Ransom, just to light some fires under our grandparent bonnets.  

For further information, ideas, and assistance with this vital grandkid issue, check out what AARP has to say about it. They have some excellent info and more good links just for you.  And be sure to sign up for the FREE SandwichINK email for more resources for Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents.

As Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents, we can have good days and we can have difficult days. A good chuckle can brighten almost any day, lifting our spirits, as well as those of our beloved elderly parents. I saw these two and they gave me such a sweet laugh, I wanted to share them with you.  

A merry heart does good, like medicine. Proverbs 17:22

The blessing about this type of "medicine" is that you can enjoy it as often as you like. When a senior parent is feeling a bit down because the weather won't allow him to take a walk. or a grandchild is not feeling well, a good riddle, a funny knock-knock joke, or a cute picture like this can put a smile on their face, and yours as well.

For more Word-filled Wednesday photos and inspirational Bible verses to encourage your hearts, be sure to pop on over to Critty Joy.