Grandma's stories

There was a young girl who would often spend Saturdays with her grandmother so her parents could get errands handled on the weekend. She loved her visits, as they drank lemonade, made cookies (and ate them), or played board games. And as they did all these things, they talked.

The girl would tell her grandmother about her favorite toys, what she was learning in grade school, and tell her silly jokes, as kids love to do. Her grandma, in turn, would tell her stories, and watch as her granddaughter listened in rapt attention to the many things she'd experienced in her life.

Years later, when the girl was a young woman, she was reminiscing with her grandma about those times, and she told her how special those stories had been. And as she'd listened to the ways God had worked in her grandma's life, she'd stored those stories away, and they had given her strength as she faced her own struggles over the years.

Your life experiences not only remind you of what God's done. When you share them with others, they show God's power to the next generation. The psalmist understood the value of stories and how they are an inheritance passed down to future generations.

Just as Mary treasured in her heart the wonderful events of Jesus' birth and later told them to others, the stories you treasure can be a source of encouragement and witness to those who are to come.