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Dr. Josh Mulvihill joins Yvette to talk about the blessing of grandparents. What does the Bible say about a grandparent's role, and how can grandparents be a blessing to homeschool families?
Use Coupon Code PODCAST to save 25% on registration for the 2023 Homegrown Generation Family Expo!
Watch this full conversation on our YouTube channel.
Dr. Mulvihill answers these questions and covers the following topics this week:
What is the biblical role of grandparents
What is the role of grandparents in homeschooling
What about grandparents who DON’T support homeschooling?
How can grandparents be engaged in homeschooling? How can they help lighten the load for parents?
What about long distance?
How can parents and grandparents work together to homeschool children?
How can kids serve grandparents?
What are the benefits of having grandparents involved?
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for 18 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of AWANA, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen. They homeschool their five children and live in Victoria, MN. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping, fishing, reading a great book, and a DIY project on their hobby farm.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
Grandparenting Matters book series, by Josh Mulvihill
50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults, by Josh Mulvihill
Biblical Worldview: What it is, Why it Matters, and How to Shape the Worldview of the Next Generation, by Josh Mulvihill
Listen to more from Josh Mulvihill on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast
Watch 50 Things - Raising Godly Adults, with Josh Mulvihill on YouTube
BIG NEWS FOR 2023
We are working on a new movie! Garritt has begun pre-production on a new feature-length documentary on education. Support the project here.
The Family Series will continue with interviews from Dr. Josh Mulvihill, Dr. Matthew McDill, Natalie Mack, Misty Bailey, and more!
Support Schoolhouse Rocked!
Has the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast been a blessing to you? Support from our listeners allows us provide resources, support, and encouragement to homeschooling families around the world. Please consider donating to support Schoolhouse Rocked.
 
Be the most popular mom in your co-op. Get your Schoolhouse Rocked merch here.
SPONSORS:
CTCMath - CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Start your free trial today.
BJU Press Homeschool provides complete curriculum for preschool through 12th grade with both traditional textbooks and video courses available. Education from a Christian worldview reshapes how children see the world. BJU Press materials teach Christ's power and lordship through the Big Story of creation.
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) equips teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Using the Structure and Style™ writing method, IEW will give you the ability to fill young minds with language-building skills, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of excellent writing.
Apologia – Apologia is a Christ-centered, award-winning homeschool curriculum provider. Our mission is to help homeschooling students and families learn, live, and defend the Christian faith through our print and digital curriculum and online classes.
The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast is proud to be a member of the Christian Podcast Community.
 
Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schoolhouse_rocked/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchoolhouseRocked/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/SchoolhouseRocked
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SRHomeschool
Website: https://SchoolhouseRocked.com
 
Transcript:
 
Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rock podcast and welcome back to my conversation with Josh Mulvihill. If you guys missed Monday's episode, in Wednesday's episode, go back and listen to those. We are talking about grandparents. And like I said Monday, you don't have to be a grandparent to listen to this. As a matter of fact, I'm assuming that most of you are not grandparents, so some of you probably are.
And maybe your child gave this to you to listen to it because you are the grandparent of their children and you play such an important role if you are. But one day, you know what? We're all going to be grandparents. You know, most of us I shouldn't say all of us, but I think most of us will be grandparents at some point.
So we're actually going to talk a little bit later today on how we can prepare for grand parenthood. But but I have a couple of other things I want to talk about before then. But before we get into that, I want to say thank you again to our sponsor, B.J., you press homeschool. Do you want help managing your homeschool day on a day to day basis?
B.J You press has a new homeschool hub that can dramatically simplify things for you. You'll be able to see your child's workload, document grades, modify schedules, and more. The B.J. you Press Homeschool Hub is the resource you need for painless planning and happy homeschooling. Visit B.J. you press homeschool dot com to see how the hub can change your homeschooling.
Josh welcome back. I am really enjoying this conversation and man, it's convicting. I, I love it and I hate it. I love and hate talking about things that convict me. And I'm as you're talking, I'm like, oh, we really need to work on these things with our grandparents because I know that my kids grandparents really do love them and praise God.
All of their grandparents are still alive and walking this earth. And so we need to be more intentional about building relationships with them. And so I really do appreciate your just transparency and the study that you've done of God's Word to just help guide us through this world of of having grandparents in our life. I want to ask you a question that I used to have a very, very strong opinion on this and now I'm curious because as we're talking about homeschooling, I'm curious to know what your take is on this.
And maybe, I don't know. Let's see, I want to talk about grandparents and discipline, because I used to think grandparents should have nothing to do with disciplining their kid, their grand kids at all. And I mean, like spanking time out, you know, whatever in any kind of reprimand. Now, correction is different. You know, if your grandchild is going to burn their hands on the stove, then by all means scream at the top of your lungs and stop that from happening.
But as we talk about grandparents being involved in homeschooling, perhaps that brings a little bit different responsibility to grandparents. Right. And the world of discipline. I just think that discipline and correction is really the role of parents, not grandparents. But tell me, I want to know from you and from your study of the Bible what your take is on this.
Well, I agree with you. The Bible only gives specific commands for the discipline of a child to parents. It never directs that to grand parents. So I think that's pretty informative. So I think that should generally guide us. But I do have a but. Okay. The more time a grandparent spends with the grandchild, the more necessary that some form of correction is needed.
And I believe this becomes one of those family conversations that it's wise to have early on so that some surprises are avoided and landmines do not get walked on. I have many experiences with individuals that grandparents even are avoided discipline and it was a train wreck or jumped into discipline thinking they needed to. And it was a train wreck because mom and dad and grandma and grandpa weren't on the same page.
Yeah. So I'll give you some examples. If grand parents babysit a child a day, a week or multiple days a week and the grandchild is there on a consistent basis, there's even our our delightful little cherub children, they all have their moments and they will with the grand parent and they learn, you know, they learn really quick. I can get away with stuff if there's no you know, if there's there's no boundaries that could be enforced.
So we we essentially set grandparents up to fail. If if a grandchild learns, hey, I could do whatever I want. And it just it, it ties the hands of a grandparent. So I think in certain instances where grandparents are spending regular or high volumes of time, high volumes would be mom and dad go out of town for a week and grandparents come over and are there for a week watching the kids.
There needs to be a plan. You can't just leave and say, right, you know, see in a week guaranteed, there's going to be there's going to be stuff that arises. So what is that? I just have that conversation. What are you comfortable with? What are grandparents comfortable with? I don't know, a single grandparent that would want to physically correct a grandchild, spank a child, a grandchild, and I discourage that.
So I would say put that aside. But there needs to be some form of correction that is there that a grandparent can utilize. So what is that and what does that look like? Have that conversation. I'll throw out to other areas that often trip families up. It's media usage and it's food consumption. And sometimes. Yeah, and sometimes bedtime routines.
When does it you know, you grandparents stay with grandkids and they go to bed at midnight, they come back and they're wrecked or, you know, chil your grandchildren are over came and grandpa's house and they are a little more liberal with what they watch. And, you know, you know, we're pretty conservative, for example, and oh, my goodness, we would never let our kids watch that.
You know, there are certain things that will guaranteed create some challenging conflicts. And those are all areas that's just wise. Well, I'll call it the talk. Have the talk, discipline, media, food, bedtime, if you can. You know, what we're essentially we're doing is managing expectations, limiting, eliminating surprises. And when we get to that point, it's a win then for everybody, because then we can have good experiences.
And, you know, all grandparents are different. Some that tend to be more harsh and tend to be a little more authoritative. We can have the conversation about, okay, there needs to be grace because grandchildren are going to experience that side of a grandparent. And the what we don't want to have is for our great grandchildren are super sensitive to this stuff.
And so we want to again set our parents up for success to say, okay, here, you know, this is the way a grandchild, whether it's right or not, this is the way they're perceiving things. I want you to know, so adjustments can be made so that it can be a wonderful experience, because what ends up happening is if there's bad experiences in these areas, either we say as parents, oh, we're not going to let grandparents spend time or grandkids go, I don't want to go over there because it wasn't fun, it wasn't enjoyable.
So this helps us avoid those kinds of outcomes. And then grandparents go, What did I what happened? What did I do? And so these are those are just practical areas that really help in the long run. So have the talk.
Yeah, love it. That is great. Great, great and very helpful Encouragement. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. We are back with Josh Mulvihill. So this was so interesting. You told me, I think it was before we started recording the average age of grandparents. And what is that? What is the average age of grandparents?
It is 47 to 50, 53 years old. It's the average age. Someone first becomes a grandparent. Young. It's young. Yeah. Most people think it's way older.
Right? Right. Well, you say young because you're in your forties and I'm going to say young, too, because I'm in my forties. But yeah, I mean, that really is young. It's so funny as they think about Garrett and I mean, you know, we're at 28 years of marriage. We could easily be grandma, grandparents and you know, we're not yet, of course, but you know, it would not be weird at all.
I have lots of friends that I've graduated high school with who are grandparents now, and I see them on Facebook and I'm like, how do you have grandkids already? It makes me feel old because when we think about grandparents, we think of, you know, gray haired, white haired, you know, old people in an old folks home. And that's not the reality of most grandparents.
And so most are young. And as we look to that and as you know, my kids are growing so fast and I'm looking towards them, you know, being out of our home and starting their own lives and getting married and stuff. I really want to prepare myself to be a grandmother. And we talk about these things with our girls.
You know, I can't wait some day to be a grandparent, to have grandkids. How do we prepare ourselves now to have a really good relationship with our kids and with our grandkids as as they grow?
I'll give you three words understand, embrace and discuss. So understand the biblical role that God's given grandparents. You know, all of us are going to be first time grandparents at some point that more than likely that have kids. And like the numbers I read, at some point, it's like 98% of parents become grandparents. So it's like a virtual lock for for just about every one of us that have kids.
It's just a matter of when. You know, there may be a few that that's not the case. But and so that day is coming. We want to be prepared for it when it's here. And that begins with understanding what the Bible says, what God's role is for us, and and getting clarity around that. Many don't have it. And of course, you can't apply what you don't understand and you don't know.
So open up your Bible at some point and begin just to do a study on what does the Bible say about grandparenting, and that will be extremely helpful for you. The second piece is embrace. You know, I think this has a lot of different facets to it, and it begins, in my view, with some life choices. So in Minnesota where I live, a lot of individuals move away.
They're snowbirds for part or all of the year, and they will sometimes all will go thousands of miles from their family by choice. You know, there's yeah, this is if it's work related or other than okay it makes sense but but I'll often talk about grand parenting and I'll never forget this this one grandmother that came up to me and she said, you know, I just heard everything you had to say, Josh and I've got my house on the market right now.
And I was going to move to Florida, but my entire family lives here in the Twin Cities. She's like, I suppose that means I probably shouldn't leave then. And yeah, that's a that's a convicting thing. You know, obviously distance doesn't mean you can't do what God says in his word, but it definitely makes it more difficult. And so those kinds of life choices that we begin to make and some of us are making those now about where we live, how we live, you know, as our standard of living inheritance kinds of questions, we start to get into that arena.
My personal preference is I would rather give inheritance kinds of things to children in a way that that helps them, helps children and grandchildren know love and serve Jesus while we're alive. This could be an education related piece of paying for college. It could be blessing with a home or a down payment for a home in a marriage for a grandchild.
There's a lot of different ways, but those begin to come into the conversation piece and so those life choices, I will say, we want to embrace what the Bible has to say and allow them to begin to inform some of those life choices. I would love for all of us to go from, Hey, I'm a I'm a grandparent, I'm a Christian grandparent, too.
I'm an intentional Christian grandparent. And when I spend my time with my my grandkids from their earliest days to my final days, it will be with that intentionality in mind. And then the third one that I mentioned is discussed. I think it's wise to start having conversations as a couple right now and with our children even long before they're dating, married, having grandkids just to be to be planting seeds about that stage and age, to say, you know, we want to be active as grandparents in your kids lives.
We want to you want, you know, we can start painting a vision and a picture that they then can speak to and help shape. But many in many ways, our grandparents are often, I believe, you know, they're held at a distance and they're at a loss because the kind of picture that they painted for their kids is one they they don't like now.
And there's such a distance and a disconnect. And so let's paint a picture with them. Have discussions about intimate, connected together. What does that look like? And, of course, you know, for some there will be a moving away that is required. But that doesn't mean that that has to be the norm. I think you know, we've got one of our oldest right now is 16, is a junior in high school.
He's just on the doorstep of college. So one of the one of the practical things in this area, you know, we're thinking about where does he go to school? And most people maybe this is a generalization a lot of people that go far away to school, that's where they meet their spouse. That's when they begin to work. That's where they settle down, build a family.
And sometimes they end up moving back home. But that I would much prefer to, if possible, encourage a young person to stay within the sphere of where we live unless God is clearly calling them out to a different location. If it's a preference piece, then man, I'm going to do everything I can to encourage a closer geographical location for our kids so that that grandparent piece is one of the, you know, one of the biggest challenges is long distance grandparenting.
It's it's a huge challenge when you have kids scattered all over the country, grandkids scattered all over. You know, there's a lot that we can be that can be done with time and technology or travel and technology, but it has its limitations. Nothing beats face to face in person. And so those are the kinds of things I would say.
So here's my question What do you want for your grandparenting years? Mm hmm. Have that discussion as a couple. Begin to paint that picture for your kids. Work towards it. You know, we hold those that loosely are plans. You know, God, God directs our steps. We can make our plans, but at least we have, you know, we've got something.
And and, you know, I think that's what we can be doing today to prepare. One other thing I'll mention if you have if you're if you're in the early parenting or marriage years, especially the early marriage years, I will say don't delay child bearing, because what this does, if you delay marriage and then you delay child bearing, you essentially delay grandparenting on the front end.
You might feel like, hey, this is great. We've got you know, we got some years together as a couple kind of payoffs, loans start to make some money, have some fun. Well, what ends up happening is you move from being a younger grandparent to an older grandparent on the back end. And that makes a pretty considerable difference if you're starting to have grandkids for the first time in the mid the late fifties or even early sixties, you've just closed that window considerably as far as the grandparent influence.
And I know a lot of grandparents in my travels with grandparenting, physical limitations begin to be a real thing as far as health goes. And yeah, and so, you know, those are conversations we've even had with our kids about don't delay marriage. If, you know, if you have clarity about the person you're you know, the Bible talks about the wife of our youth.
God loves early marriage when it's, you know, in a wise way and you'll be fruitful and multiply on the early side. That's going to you know, there'll be some challenges on the front end potentially, but you'll reap the benefits down the road. So those are all preparation kinds of things that we can be thinking about.
Yeah, Yeah. So good. I like that. You talked, you mentioned, you know, just painting a vision as grandparents and, you know, as we move into grand parenthood, at some point. And I thought, what a great thing we've talked on the podcast about in our homeschool, you know, creating a vision for our homeschool and for our family. And I never have thought about doing that as grandparents, you know, And how great would it be for grandparents to literally sit down together and create a vision for themselves?
Like, what do you want to be as a grandparent? What do you how do you want your kids to remember you and how do you want your grandkids to remember you when you leave this earth? What kind of legacy do you want to leave for them? And just taking the time to really think through that and write that down, I think is such a gift that grandparents can give to their their families, you know?
So anyway, we are out of time. But really quickly, you mentioned earlier that you have a book series and is it published by Family life today? Because I'm you said Dennis Rainey forced you to write a book in seven weeks. That's crazy. Yeah. What is the book series and where can people find it?
It's published by Bethany House. It is. It's called the Grandparenting Matter Series. You can find them on pretty much any book outlet. Amazon. I don't love giving Amazon business, but yeah, that's the quick reference place for a lot of people. Make a starting point. There's seven books in the series. If you want a deep dive with a lot of research and study biblical grandparenting is the place to go.
It's my favorite one. It is meaty. It's great If you are a more of a casual click, read the book. Grandparenting is is a good one that has a study guide that goes with it, a DVD series. A lot of churches use it for small groups. Sunday School classes. And then there's the third one. If you're like a voracious reader, it's called discipling your Grandchildren.
And it's literally a book. It's written by a grandmother and my wife and I, and it's literally hundreds of ideas to disciple a grandchild in which there's eight, eight methods that Scripture gives, I think are pretty clear for grandparents. And we just kind of tease that out a whole bunch of different ways. And that's pretty impactful. So if you're if you're like, I want the practical stuff or a good gift for a grandparent this Christmas, this at Christmas, but a good gift in the future that you a.
Mother's Day or Father's Day.
There you go. There you go.
Yeah. So great. Okay. We will put links to all of your books, including 50 things, and we'll put links to all of those in the show notes so people can quickly find them. Josh, thank you for your ministry. Thank you for just being so passionate about families, about grandparents, about the legacy that they're leaving for their grandkids and just just, you know, tying that cord together because it's so important, I think more important than we realize.
And and you know, you referred to several times how it's different in the United States and it is and other places. And I think that's sad. I wish that we had a culture that that really embraced grandparents more than it does and the relationships that we have with them, because they really are an important part of the lives of our kids.
And so thank you for bringing the conviction this week to me as well as I'm sure so many of our listeners. And just for your wisdom that you shared, we really appreciate it. And you guys, thank you so much for listening. We are so grateful for you. Please let us know how we can be praying for you. You can reach us at podcast at Schoolhouse Rock dot com.
Have a great rest of your week and we'll see you back here on Monday with another fantastic guest by.
 

Dr. Josh Mulvihill joins Yvette to talk about the blessing of grandparents. What does the Bible say about a grandparent's role, and how can grandparents be a blessing to homeschool families?
Come back tomorrow for the rest of this conversation.
Use Coupon Code PODCAST to save 25% on registration for the 2023 Homegrown Generation Family Expo!
Watch this full conversation on our YouTube channel.
Dr. Mulvihill answers these questions and covers the following topics this week:
What is the biblical role of grandparents
What is the role of grandparents in homeschooling
What about grandparents who DON’T support homeschooling?
How can grandparents be engaged in homeschooling? How can they help lighten the load for parents?
What about long distance?
How can parents and grandparents work together to homeschool children?
How can kids serve grandparents?
What are the benefits of having grandparents involved?
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for 18 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of AWANA, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen. They homeschool their five children and live in Victoria, MN. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping, fishing, reading a great book, and a DIY project on their hobby farm.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
 
Grandparenting Matters book series, by Josh Mulvihill
50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults, by Josh Mulvihill
Biblical Worldview: What it is, Why it Matters, and How to Shape the Worldview of the Next Generation, by Josh Mulvihill
Listen to more from Josh Mulvihill on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast
Watch 50 Things - Raising Godly Adults, with Josh Mulvihill on YouTube
BIG NEWS FOR 2023
We are working on a new movie! Garritt has begun pre-production on a new feature-length documentary on education. Support the project here.
The Family Series will continue with interviews from Dr. Josh Mulvihill, Dr. Matthew McDill, Natalie Mack, Misty Bailey, and more!
Support Schoolhouse Rocked!
Has the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast been a blessing to you? Support from our listeners allows us provide resources, support, and encouragement to homeschooling families around the world. Please consider donating to support Schoolhouse Rocked.
 
Be the most popular mom in your co-op. Get your Schoolhouse Rocked merch here.
SPONSORS:
CTCMath - CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Start your free trial today.
BJU Press Homeschool provides complete curriculum for preschool through 12th grade with both traditional textbooks and video courses available. Education from a Christian worldview reshapes how children see the world. BJU Press materials teach Christ's power and lordship through the Big Story of creation.
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) equips teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Using the Structure and Style™ writing method, IEW will give you the ability to fill young minds with language-building skills, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of excellent writing.
Apologia – Apologia is a Christ-centered, award-winning homeschool curriculum provider. Our mission is to help homeschooling students and families learn, live, and defend the Christian faith through our print and digital curriculum and online classes.
The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast is proud to be a member of the Christian Podcast Community.
 
Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schoolhouse_rocked/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchoolhouseRocked/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/SchoolhouseRocked
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SRHomeschool
Website: https://SchoolhouseRocked.com
Transcript:
 
Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. And welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rock podcast. I am back today with Josh Mulvihill. Dr. Josh Mulvihill. You never say that. You never you never make it a thing that you're a doctor. But it just seems like. Right. Right. Yeah. So. Josh Mulvihill, He's super down to earth. So, you know, if you met him in the grocery store, you wouldn't be like Dr. Mulvihill Know the bow tie that you're wearing right now?
Kind of. I'm just kidding. He's not one of our type. If you guys are not watching it. I mean, you're just listening. He is not worried about time. Anyway, we are talking about grandparents this week. This is part of our Schoolhouse Rock family series. And on Monday, we talked about we kind of set the foundation for why grandparents are important in the lives of our kids and what the biblical role of grandparents is.
And today we're going to get into some of the practical things that grandparents can do to really be a blessing and leave a legacy for their grandkids. But first, I want to thank our sponsor, B.J., you press homeschool. No parent should homeschool alone. You have a God given calling to bring up your child, to love God and to steward his creation.
And be sure you press exist to help you be successful in that endeavor. Visit their website at BJU Press Homeschool dot com or call one 800 8455731 to connect with an experienced homeschool consultant. All right, Josh, thank you for coming back with me again today. Let's talk about the practicality of grandparents and how they really can leave a legacy and impact the lives of their grandkids.
Because we talked about the why. Now let's talk about the how.
Yeah, well, I think scripture gives us a lot of guidance about the methods that grandparents can invest in telling their testimony and teaching and asking questions that generate good spiritual dialog in in prayer. Oh, man, our kids need prayer. We need prayer as parents. There's just the Bible gets really prescriptive with those kinds of things that become very helpful.
And and, you know, grandparents can learn from that. I think as we talk about homeschooling, you know, as we start to open that door and start to think about what does it look like for a grandparent to engage on the homeschool front, my encouragement is to consider three questions that you can just bounce around in your head that might be helpful for you as this talking points with the grandparent.
One What's a huge area of need for you or or an area of need? Is it a specific subject area? Is it help with some of your younger kids so that you can engage? Is it help in in some other area of your family life? And I think some a second question that you can engage with is what are their gifts and their passions?
And you're talking about questions for grandparents to ask.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, That you could ask yourself or you could ask ask them gifts or passions. So every every grandparent has a whole long list of these. And it's pretty easy to get people excited about things they love and and they can invest in a younger grandchild in that way. Ah, so I'll give you a few example of these I'll swing back with after I mentioned the third question here, just with our family.
The third one is how can you create some easy wins and early success? If this is new for a grand parent, it becomes critical that it's just not a bad experience to start. And so put the tie on the I put the ball on the tee so that it's it's a it's a it's a home run. And a grandparent and a grandchild will have a good experience and say, we want to do this again.
So bite sized easy win. So here's what this is looked like in some of these areas for our family. Just to give you some practical examples, Jen's dad loves electrical stuff, so he has taught our kids ham radio. He has purchased them all the wires and knobs and, you know, they're doing like electrical engineering kinds of things, Stuff I'm not good at in any way, shape or form.
And that's a life skill area. That man, that's great to know. Those kinds of things. My dad enjoys the outdoors. He has has loved investing in Bible study and Scripture memorization. My Jen's dad lives maybe a half an hour from us. My dad lives an hour and 15 minutes notice. I'm saying dads, our moms both died many years ago.
My mom died of ALS. Jen's mom died of brain cancer. So we've got And then my dad remarried, So we've got I could talk all about that. That's a different conversation. But and so that's why you hear me mentioning that. But my dad lives about an hour and 15 minutes away. So a lot of what they do is by technology.
And so they have a weekly call where my dad calls in. They do some Bible memorization and then they talk life. It's fantastic. And there's an accountability piece they're getting in God's word and memorizing it. As kids have gotten older, he's now going to be doing a book study with the older kids, and it's probably on an apologetics topic.
So they'll read a section, connect over video, Zoom, or whatever that is. And man, you can do so much in that in that regard. Know a and then my dad does a lot on the outdoor side with our kids in the hunting fishing and I you know some people think you know that's not really homeschooling you know a lot of you know it is this is like it's just a study, just so everybody understands where we come from with our our approach to homeschooling.
We think discipleship, education, I use those interchangeably there. It's a four legged stool of study, worship, work and service. And so when you when we start to think about those different categories, there's a lot of ways that grandparents can engage Jen's dad. We all attend worship at the same church on Sunday morning. He's teaching his grandkids how to worship God.
Through his example. We sit I'll sit together through studying. My dad's doing that through those calls, work and service. There's so many ways and so I think letting grandparents know, here's what we're doing. And then just asking, how could you help? What, where, where do you see some opportunities putting the ball in their court? And I think you'll you know, there will be a lot of different ways that grandparents could come up with when you start to lay things out like like we just did.
Yeah, that is so cool. It is hard when I mean, I feel like a lot of grandparents live far distances. You know, we're in Oklahoma. My mom lives in California, and Garrett's parents and my dad live in Georgia. And so we're far, far, you know, 18 to 20 some hours from any of our grandparents. And so it is difficult.
But like you said, there are ways, you know, through Zoom calls or, you know, even just through the phone. I mean, it doesn't even have to be video. The video is more fun because you can see people's faces. But there are ways that that grandparents can be involved with their kids, with their grandkids and they're in their lives.
And so I think that's really, really cool. And just finding ways for them to be engaged in their homeschooling and in their education. You know, maybe grandpa is really good at math and mom is not. That would be the case with me. And, you know, so being able to call grandpa and say, Hey, grandpa, how do you solve this problem?
You know, but grandparents have to be willing to do that. And you talked a little bit before about toxic relationships with grandparents. I want to park there for just a second because I obviously I mean, that is something that is real for a lot of people. How do you navigate through a relationship that is a difficult relationship and maybe the grandparents don't, you know, maybe they love their grandkids, but they don't really want anything to do with homeschooling or anything to do with really discipleship.
Or maybe they're just not saved and they can't. You know, there are lots of grandparents who a Christian parent isn't going to put their kids in front of them and say, Here, disciple my kids, because, you know, they're they're not saved, perhaps. How do you navigate through the difficulties of having a grandparent in that phase of life?
Well, I, I look to scripture as the guide and, you know, the Bible tells us what to do when there's conflict. So I look at Matthew 18 as a place to start, you know, a conversation had in love. And I think, you know, I think restoration, if there's a broken relationships always the goal and you know, God the father had a lot of sons and private goals.
So there you know what we look to the Bible, man. There's so many principles we can tease out from just how God operates when there are problematic relationships from him with his children that we can glean. And, you know, one of them that I look to is he always pursues he always leaves the door open. There's always a high measure of grace.
And I would be I would prefer to be accused of being too gracious than than not. And that's hard. I mean, it is hard because everything in our flesh wants to lash out and and and, you know, seek revenge and hurt back if that's been part of the case. But I made a distinction before I can revisit. And that's the difference between difficult and destructive.
And, you know, if there is a destructive thing that is happening relationally, then for the health of our selves and our family, we do need to draw a line and we can have that conversation still and love to just say, you know, this, this, these words or these actions are just very hurtful. And they're they're they're problematic. And, you know, that needs to change.
I've had one really difficult conversation like that with an extended family member, and God used it to bring that relationship to a different place, a good place. It was a hard conversation. But there's a difference between destructive and difficult and difficult means. We need you know, the Bible calls us to be to look the other way, to to work through it, to fight through it, to bare, you know, the bare with kind of terminology and scripture.
And we're always going to have difficult in family relationships. It just comes with the territory. And so, you know, I want to I want to, I think, extend the grace and, you know, hopefully if both are Christians, then that we can appeal to God's word and we can work through hopefully what's there. If that's not possible, then I would say seek out a pastor.
And I've done quite a bit of counseling with grandparents and parents. When you get four in the room, I'll tell you, it gets a little complex at times working through all the stuff going on. But that, you know, it's worth it's worth doing that hard work. And so if you get to that point where you're just like, Man, we're stuck.
We want to work through this, we feel like it's worth fighting for. We believe that's pleasing to the Lord. That may be a path to go. Seek out at your church, pastor, and say, Could you help us here? Yeah. You know, if if grandparents are Christians, then we're dealing with a different category. And of course, we're going to be having different value systems, different views on a lot of things.
And it's it's going to be very difficult to probably get to some of the same outcomes. But we can at least there are times, I think, where there will be an overlap. And when that happens, we can invite invite grandparents in to be part of and they still can contribute to a degree. And so God's common grace exists in certain areas that we can, you know, grandparents could still teach life skills and still, you know, my my grandparents were were Catholic.
I don't know if they were Christians or not. But so, for example, you know, they man, they modeled a lifelong marriage, which was a huge blessing to me. And you know, that, you know, that was something that was a gift they gave even though I don't know if they were Christians. So there are things that non-Christian grandparents can give that are valuable.
And I think just think through what what is that? And yeah, and you can invite that in.
We are back with Josh. You know, before the break, you were talking about just, you know, how sometimes some of us have difficult relationships with grandparents. I mean, I know that's just a thing across the board with a lot of people. And oftentimes people have grandparents who are not believers. And I was thinking what an incredible opportunity that is for our kids and our family to be able to share the gospel with their grandparent.
My husband had a grandfather. It was his dad's dad, and he never wanted to hear about the Lord. I mean, he like he would get angry when we would talk about the Lord and we would just kind of casually, you know, just, oh, you know, you know, God is faithful. He did this thing or he did that thing.
And he would be like, Oh, no, you know, God's not real. He's just imaginary. And he would get mad at us, but we would just kind of gently just bring God into the conversation because that was our life. I mean, we we didn't know how not to do that, really. And it was so interesting. He got really sick and it was just a few months before he passed and he was in his maybe early eighties, maybe late seventies and and a few months before he passed away, he actually gave his life to the Lord.
And it was just really cool. And it was like the Lord had planted all these seeds for years and years. But many of those seeds had been planted through his grandsons and his grandsons. We just talked to him about the Lord just just casually and just share Christ with him, and so did his own sons. But but it was neat just to see how the Lord used his family.
And after all these years, he finally gave his life to the Lord almost at the very end. And so kids have a huge part, can have a huge part in sharing truth and sharing the gospel with their unbelieving grandparents. I want to talk about how kids can serve grandparents because we've talked about how grandparents can serve their kids and their grandkids and how they can have a really important role in the world of homeschooling.
And I think because, you know, our kids are homeschooled, they might have more opportunities to even serve their gram, their grandparents. How can kids really be a blessing to their grandparents and how can we train them up to do that?
Well, just like the Bible gives grandparents a role with children and grandchildren, the Bible also gives children and grandchildren a role with grandparents, and that revolves around the idea of honor and respect and caring for their physical and emotional needs of the aging. Interestingly, in Scripture, you don't ever see the idea of a retirement plan because that's what we are.
Children are a parent's retirement plan scripturally, and in most cultures you have tried generational living as a piece of that. That's not the norm in the United States, at least it hasn't been for a few generations, in part because of the influence of our country. Social Security has essentially one of the unintended consequences of Social Security was it puts the generations apart from one another.
But as I think that will begin to change as our country becomes less affluent, you'll see that more and and that was just the norm. But as we think about how we serve grandparents, part of that is simply the way we talk about them. You know, listening to them, the way we engage with them. A lot of grandparents feel minimized and marginalized, and that's reflective in the time communication.
You know, we're not they don't get called. They don't get visits, they don't get invited to. And in fact, that's a lament I hear from a lot of grand parents. I just want to be a part of. I don't feel like I don't know my children anymore. And and there's settlement there. So that honoring and that respecting, I think is huge from grandchildren.
It it bestows to somebody that they are important and valued. And the other piece is the care element. And as all of us age, that's just the reality. And God has built that into the family. God's design is for the family to care for one another. That's not to be given away to the government or, you know, the church can step in as a supplement and God puts the church there as a fallback.
You know, we get the commands to care for widows and orphans, essentially, when the family can't do what the family has been designed to do by God, then the church is kind of the fallback. But we see, just like with education, when we give God's designed role to a different institution, you know, education with the government in public school or the caring of family to any of the other institutions, all kinds of problems happen and it weakens all the institutions.
And so, you know, there you know, grandparents have a role with their family members, and we do as well with with grandparents. And, you know, there's it's interesting, you know, the of the at the ends of the spectrum, young and old both often feel like they don't have the purpose and they their value is not as significant as it could be.
And I think the grandparent grandchild relationship adds of a place of purpose, meaning and value for both for grandkids to care, for grandparents, to honor them, to be part of their life, to serve them. You know, this could take different roles as far as helping around their house, being with being, you know, you know, helping in whatever kind of care needs are there and vice versa with a grandparent to invest in a in a child.
And it's interesting that these often these two ends is that the higher end needs of the life spectrum and God's built in a a a give and take there that we need to be willing to invest in. And it takes energy, it takes time, it costs us something. And that's okay. But we, you know, we reap the value and the benefit of that in these are rich relationships that many of us just have lost.
We have absolutely lost it in the United States. And we many and many times don't many ways don't even realize what what we have lost because we've never tasted it. And so I'm just going to encourage that. You know, for a grandchild, having dial up the phone and spend some time talking with a grandparent, invite the grandparent in to have dinner at your home, to be at church together, to share life together.
It is crazy. When we look back on how we used to do life, there was Sunday dinners together as an extended family. I mean, we've given that away to restaurants now. Essentially, we have outsourced the role of grandparent to other others. And we, you know, we've not left things for grandparents to engage with, and we can do that with our grandchildren as well.
So, yeah, man, it once we get engaged in doing life together, the how can we serve grandparent question Now there will be so many opportunities. And part of that is we just need to know, know our grandparents so that we can get engaged in their life.
Yeah, yeah. Looking for ways to serve. So. Wow. Good stuff. All right. We are out of time, but we are going to be back tomorrow and talk more about grandparenting. You can find out more about Josh at Renew a Nation dot org. We will put links to that in the show notes. Thank you, Josh, for being back with us again today.
And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Bye.
 

Dr. Josh Mulvihill joins Yvette to talk about the blessing of grandparents. What does the Bible say about a grandparent's role, and how can grandparents be a blessing to homeschool families?
Come back Wednesday and Thursday for the rest of this conversation.
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Watch this full conversation on our YouTube channel.
Dr. Mulvihill answers these questions and covers the following topics this week:
What is the biblical role of grandparents
What is the role of grandparents in homeschooling
What about grandparents who DON’T support homeschooling?
How can grandparents be engaged in homeschooling? How can they help lighten the load for parents?
What about long distance?
How can parents and grandparents work together to homeschool children?
How can kids serve grandparents?
What are the benefits of having grandparents involved?
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for 18 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of AWANA, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen. They homeschool their five children and live in Victoria, MN. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping, fishing, reading a great book, and a DIY project on their hobby farm.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
 
Grandparenting Matters book series, by Josh Mulvihill
50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults, by Josh Mulvihill
Biblical Worldview: What it is, Why it Matters, and How to Shape the Worldview of the Next Generation, by Josh Mulvihill
Listen to more from Josh Mulvihill on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast
Watch 50 Things - Raising Godly Adults, with Josh Mulvihill on YouTube
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Podcast Transcript:
 
There's some pretty key influencers that help a young person develop their worldview, their belief system, and parents and grandparents are first and second. And then, of course, church and school are high up on that list as well.
Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. And welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast in Welcome to one of our episodes of the Schoolhouse Rocked Family Series. That's what we're doing right now, and we are so excited to be in the middle of this series because we're talking about all the important things that encompasses us as a family, right?
We're talking about marriage and parenting and siblings and grand parents because that is part of the family puzzle. And so I am so excited to have Josh Mulvihill back with me today. If you'll remember, he was on with me. Josh, When was that? Josh I want to say maybe about a year ago.
About a year ago, Yeah.
Yeah. When you saw your new book, 50 Things Came out, we will link to that episode because that is one of my favorite episodes. As a matter of fact, several weeks ago we had I guess it was couple of months ago now, we had our 500th episode of the Schoolhouse Rock podcast, and Abby and I talked about what some of our favorite episodes were in the five plus years and 500 episodes that we've been doing this.
And that was one of my favorite episodes because it was so impactful to me and just thinking through like, how do we prepare for our kids to leave our home? And so we'll put a link to that. But Josh, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you back. But before we get into our conversation, I want to say thank you to our sponsor, B.J. you press home.
Every child has a unique individual learning style. B.J you press has video lessons with engaging teachers to lead your children through each of their academic subjects. These experienced teachers will present lesson content from multiple angles so your children can absorb information at a comfortable pace. Visit their website at BJU Press Homeschool dot com to see what courses are available for your students.
All right, Josh, welcome back to the podcast. I am so glad to have you with me this week to talk about grandparents. Introduce yourself to our audience. You may not be familiar with you yet.
Yeah, Good to be back. Ivette And hello everyone. I'm Josh Mulvihill, and I serve with an organization called Renew a Nation. And we exist to transform culture by helping children develop a biblical worldview. And I assume most listening, Biblical worldview is not new. But in case there's a few that that don't really understand what that term means, we're we're really talking about a belief system and wanting kids to believe and live according to the Bible, not the ideas of the world.
And of course, that's a huge challenge right now in the world that we live in. And as we talk about grandparenting today, you know, there's some pretty key influencers that help a young person develop their worldview, their belief system. And parents and grandparents are first and second. And then, of course, church and school are high up on that list as well.
So we live in all those arenas as an organization married to Jen for 22 years and we have five kids. Our oldest is a junior in high school and our youngest is seven, and we are spaced about two years in between a middle schooler, two grade schoolers and so we're in the thick of it. We've homeschooled since day one, since our oldest was five and kind of have learned as we went, never expected to do that, but it has been a huge blessing and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
And we live in the great state of Minnesota. We just got six inches of snow today, so my kids are actually outside frolicking in it. They got the snowmobile out and got it started. We got a 40 year old snowmobile. So they were pretty pumped. They got it going on one pull.
That's so cool. Snowmobiling is fun. We actually I've been on a snowmobile one time and that was when Garret and I got married and we went to Mammoth in California for our honeymoon and we got to ride on snowmobiles and it was super fun and super cold. And I remember just being frozen by the end of the day, but it was such a blast.
So yeah, that's that's awesome. Though, though it wouldn't be worth living in Minnesota to me because I can't. I can't. I can't do the cold like that. I just can't do it. But I don't know, it's fun to visit and it's kind of like get.
Cold in Minnesota.
Yes. Now, do you say Minnesota? Oh.
Yeah. I mean, there you go. You got you got to pull out the you betcha this and the don't you know. So that is the key one. If you want to know, it's okay, o.P or let's go.
How do you read that?
It's got a whole range of meaning depending on how and when it's said, you know, So, you know, don't you know?
Oh, there you go. So funny. Yeah. So now would you be like, Oh, I just dropped my cup like.
Yes, yes, yeah, yeah.
See, I could fit right in for this now. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, if you guys are watching this on video, you might be looking at Josh and you're probably thinking, What in the world is this young guy doing talking to us about grandparents? And you also might be thinking, I'm not a grandparent, so I don't need to listen to this.
Well, it's likely that your kids have grandparents and you probably have grandparents and your one day going to be a grandparent. And so this episode is for you, but it's also maybe for your parents to listen to. We are going to talk about the importance of grandparents in the lives of our kids. And it really is an important role that they have.
And so I'm Josh, maybe just give us a little bit of background on why you you are kind of an authority, even though you're not a grandparent yet. What what gives you the right to be here talking to us about grandparents?
Yes. Well, the the easy answer is the Bible. You know, it's I was Pastor for about 20 years, and partway through my pastoral ministry, I realized the importance of the home and the discipleship of children and decided, you know what, I think this is a pretty big passion of mine. I want to do this well as a shepherd.
So I went back to get a Ph.D. in family ministry for the purpose of of equipping parents to disciple children. And then in that process, I read something on grandparenting. I can't remember exactly where, but I, I approached my professors and I said, I assume there's got to be like this mountain of stuff on Christian grandparenting. Can you point me to it?
Because, you know, there is with parenting and they basically said, we're unaware of that. Why don't you do some research and come back? And I found seven books, mostly on self-published and on prayer and then one DVD series. And I couldn't find a single church that I could find that was equipping grandparents. And so I spent many years just studying what the Bible said from cover to cover on grandparenting and wrote about it and at it.
God use that in pretty considerable ways. There's now there's a seven book series out on grandparenting that has my name on it, which still is like, you know, there's there's some unexpected things in life and that's one of them. But how that happened, they went on family life and Dennis Rainie leaned over during a break and said, Josh, I'm going to let everybody know about your book on grandparenting after the break.
What's the title? And I said, I don't have a book. Dennis. And he said, Well, you have 3 minutes to give me a title and you have seven weeks to get it in print. And so that's how the first one came out. And then it just kind of rolled from there. But, you know, the reality is I'm not the authority on grandparenting.
God's word is. And so I think any faithful pastor opens up the Bible and says, here's what God says on this topic or any subject. And surprisingly, nobody had done that on grandparenting to the degree that I did just the biblical theology of. And so I got to use that. And I joke sometimes that God spoke through a donkey so he could speak through me.
So here we go. Giddy up.
Well, we will not call you a donkey, but there you go. Absolutely. And I love that you just point it straight back to God's word, because it has all of what we need for life. Right. So we're going to talk about I want to jump off with a biblical role of grandparents. But before we do, let's take a quick break.
We'll be right back. We want to thank all of our sponsors for making this show possible. B.J., you press home, homeschool CTC, Math, apology and Iaw without them, we wouldn't be able to do this. Visit this show notes for links to these great companies and thank them for supporting the Schoolhouse Rock podcast. We are back with Josh Mulvihill.
And it's so funny, during the break there was this crinkling sound and I was like, Is that a bag of chips? It's like, No, it's my Bible.
It's like, it.
Could be better, better his Bible than chips. The chips are just.
Going to take a bite here real quick, right.
Right in the middle of the podcast. Oh, man. As long as they're ruffles with ridges, you're fine, because those are the best kind of chips to eat. So anyway, we are not here to talk about chips. We're here to talk about grandparenting. And I would love to know from you, just as you have studied God's Word, what is the biblical role of grandparents?
In a Word, I summarize it as disciple maker, which in the research that I did, only about 25% of grandparents would land in that category about three quarters. Don't they understand their role to be something different? And it's helpful, I think, to make a distinction about what the world says the role of a grandparent is versus the Bible, and it's pretty significant and stark.
And once I mention a few of the kind of the key ideas of the world, you know, people pretty quickly go, Yeah, I recognize that. But they're subtle, but they're impactful and it's helpful for us that are not grandparents to understand this because we sometimes encourage these kinds of behaviors and goals and we want to do what we can to help our grandparents, to be intentional Christian grandparents, and to really help to work towards the same outcome that we have as parents.
We have the same goal, but we have different roles as parents and grandparents. So the two things I like to summarize that the world says about grandparents aunts is the idea of indulgence. And and that comes with the idea of basically we say we need to live separate lives, don't overstep, don't be a burden. You kind of live your world will live ours and you know, will.
We'll get together at certain times of the year, holidays, birthdays, important times. But essentially we live completely separate existence. And what ends up happening is there's this emotional distance that happens because of the physical distance, and it becomes really difficult then for grandparents to do what God's word calls them to do because of that distance. The second one is the idea of indulgence.
So we got independence, we got indulgence to ise ad you'll recognize this with the idea of spoiling grandkids and having fun as that as the key goal. And of course I have no problem with grandparents having fun and giving good gifts to to their grandkids. But when that becomes kind of the end goal and the main thing, it's just short of where God's Word has us.
So the Bible, man, it has a lot to say about grandparenting. If you look up the word grandpa aren't in a concordance, you're going to only see a few few verses listed. The issue, though, is we need to come to God's Word on his terms, not ours. And so the Bible has a ton of things to say and this is might be a fun activity for you to do with with a concordance just to open it up.
And you can look look for these terms. A fun little study to do on your own. Look for the terms children's children sons, son, fathers or fathers, father, sometimes generations, sometimes family, depending on on its usage. And so when we start to look at terms like that, suddenly it's like, wow, the Bible has a lot to say about grandpa and and here are a few of my favorite passages.
Deuteronomy four nine may be the most concise in the Bible. It says this Teach these things to your children and your children's children. And of course, the these things is in reference to God's law, the Ten Commandments, which are introduced. Then in Deuteronomy five, my all time favorite is Psalm 78, verses four through seven. And in this passage, the psalmist lays out a couple of methods to disciple the next generation.
He talks about telling your testimony, talks about tell the glorious deeds of the Lord is might and the wonders that He has done. So our testimony, our story is not the point, it's the pointer. We make much of God because our kids need to worship God. They're going to worship something and we want them to have this great view of God.
And then the Bible also in Psalm 78 talks about teach the law. And of course, that may be the most repeated repetitive phrase command to grandparents in the Bible is this idea of teaching them the law. And of course, when we start to get into the to the terminology of teach, we get into the realm of discipleship and education and home schooling.
Yeah. And so we can very easily draw a line to grandparents having a a God designed role in the home education arena because of that, you know, that command, like I teach these things but some 78 that that portion ends with this I'll just read it here. It says tell and teach essentially for what purpose? It says so that they should set their hope in God, that salvation language.
And that's one that's obviously our our hope is parents and grandparents and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And that gets into the kind of great commission talk, you know, teach them these things. And and so that, you know, I look at that getting into sanctification and discipleship and in in that arena. And so, you know, the Bible gets really prescriptive with some of the things that grandparents are to do and teaching is one of those.
So that ties up our conversation today for what can there contribute should partnership role be in in home education and manage it. I look at Scripture and I think it's it's a big piece. It can be a big piece of our pie.
Yeah. Yeah. What's so interesting about that is, you know, you talk to young moms and to homeschool moms, and when we're in the thick of it, when we've got, you know, lots of kids crawling all over us and we're homeschooling and we're trying to take care of our family and doing all the things that we do throughout the day.
It can be sometimes very hard to spend time just really digging into God's word. You know, I'm in a season in my life right now where my girls are older and it's it's much easier for me to spend time just studying the word of God and really digging deep. But when my girls were little, it was it was harder for me.
I still did it, but I didn't get as deep as I wanted to because I just couldn't. I had more demands on my time. But grandparents, looking at the life of a grandparent, typically grandparents seem to have more time because they don't have the responsibility of raising children in their home, you know, typically. And so it seems that they they may have more time to really, really dig deep and to really understand scripture and how amazing to take their understanding of God's word and be able to pour that into the lives of their grandchildren and their children, of course, as well.
But leaving that legacy for them, that's just an amazing responsibility that they have. And so you're saying it's not just something that they can do, it's something that they should do. And God is actually telling grandparents this is what you're to do to teach. Right. But in order to teach it, they have to know it. And and that's a high calling.
That's a very high calling for grandparents. And I don't think many grandparents think about that. I mean, I've never actually really thought much about that until this conversation right now that we're having. But wow, that that is a big responsibility that they have.
Yeah, I think the big takeaway is this For those of us that aren't grandparents, it means that God has a God designed role for your kids, grand parents and that means as parents, we need to open the gate, inviting that in and not to. I believe it's not pleasing to the Lord if we don't allow a grandparent to do what God's asked them to do.
Now, of course, that raises a whole host of questions about family dynamics and what do you do in these instances. But just in general, you know, I think that is pleasing to the Lord for us to say, I'm going to do everything I can in my power to assist a grandparent to do what God's called them to do.
Now, there are instances where we may need to have boundaries or, you know, things are just destructive and toxic. And so we need to you know, we need to close that gate. But I think there's a difference between difficult and destructive. And we can work through difficult. We need to put boundaries around the destructive and and open the gate when possible.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's so much more to talk about in the on the topic of grandparenting. And so we are going to come back on Wednesday. We're out of time for today. But Josh, thank you so much for joining us today. Where can people find out more about you and your ministry?
Renew a nation dot org.
Make those links in the show notes. Thanks so much for being with us today. Have a great rest of your day and we'll see you back here on Wednesday By the homegrown generation. Family Expo is back. The Homegrown Generation Family Expo is a live and fully interactive online conference coming March six through nine. Registration is now open at homegrown generation dot com.
It'll be four days of nonstop encouragement in five that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home. Registration includes lifetime access to every session. Mark your calendars for March 6th through ninth and visit homegrown generation cnn.com to register today.
 

While parenting is a joy-filled blessing, it can also be hard. How do we take our kids from childhood to adulthood in 18 short years and then send them off with the confidence that we have taught them well and done our very best to prepare them for a life of serving Christ? Yvette Hampton talks with Dr. Josh Mulvihill, author of the new book every parent should read, 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!
Come back tomorrow for the conclusion of this conversation!
 
WATCH THE MOVIE! Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution is here. 
Get tickets today or bring Schoolhouse Rocked to your church or homeschool co-op.
Heidi St. John on the Myth of the "Perfect" Homeschool
“Schoolhouse Rocked” will rock your educational world to the foundations and give you and your kids great hope for the future! The old-school paradigm has proven broken and a new way of learning is here. Don’t miss this important film!” - Kirk Cameron
This is one of the most empowering tools I’ve seen for parents! I was honored to be interviewed in the film and am excited to see it come to fruition. It is amazing! – Israel Wayne, Family Renewal
Watch this full conversation on our YouTube channel.
 
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for 18 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of AWANA, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen. They homeschool their five children and live in Victoria, MN. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping, fishing, reading a great book, and a DIY project on their hobby farm.
Recommended Resources:
50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults, by Josh Mulvihill
Check out Josh’s other great books here!
What does the Bible Say about that?, by Kevin Swanson
Great Hymns of the Faith
CaroleJoySeid.com
 
Join Yvette Hampton and Rick Green for Constitutional Defense at Front Sight.
 
Support Schoolhouse Rocked
Has Schoolhouse Rocked been a blessing to you? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support the ongoing ministry of Schoolhouse Rocked.
Support from the homeschool community allows us provide resources and encouragement to homeschooling families around the world. 
Your support is making an ETERNAL impact!
"If you are new to homeschooling check out this podcast!! I’ve been feeling like I should homeschool for a couple years but was worried I couldn’t do it. Once the pandemic brought my kids home and I started seeing their emotional health and attitudes improve I decided to finally make the leap. This podcast has really encouraged me to make this a permanent change. Thank you for all your efforts in making this resource available!” - Autumn
“I was tearing up at the end of this film being reminded that my children are GIFTS from the Lord. I never want to abdicate my role and responsibility as their Mama. I cannot wait to share this film with everyone once it is released!!” - Amber
“We loved the movie and watched it with our children.  It left us encouraged in our choice to homeschool, as well as gave us confidence that we are not "messing" up our children's education or socialization!!” - Danielle
Whether or not you can donate, we ask that EVERY listener support the show by sharing it with your friends and family, by leaving a review on iTunes, and by praying for our team.
 
If you are considering homeschooling or just need some great homeschooling encouragement, get your FREE Homeschool Survival Kit from the producers of Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution and the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast.This 60+ page guide includes helpful articles, videos, and audio, for every stage of homeschooling, from pre-school to graduation. It will give you the encouragement you need to start strong and finish well! The Homeschool Survival Kit also includes an extensive directory of must-have homeschooling resources.
 
Please take a minute to visit our sponsors and thank them for helping to bring you The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. We ONLY work with companies we know and love! We happily recommend these companies and their products.
Are you looking for a new Math Curriculum? CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Visit CTCmath.com today to start your free trial today.
 
BJU Press Homeschool provides complete curriculum for preschool through 12th grade with both traditional textbooks and video courses available. Education from a Christian worldview reshapes how children see the world. BJU Press materials teach Christ's power and lordship through the Big Story of creation.
 
Patriot Academy - Inspiring Patriotism, Equipping Citizens, Educating A Nation. Patriot Academy has a Single, Bold Vision: To equip a new generation of leaders to champion the cause of freedom and truth in government, media, entertainment, education, as we help bring our nation back to the principles on which we were founded.
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) equips teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Using the Structure and Style™ writing method, IEW will give you the ability to fill young minds with language-building skills, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of excellent writing.
Podcast Topics: Josh Mulvihill, 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving home, Author, Pastor, Book,  Yvette Hampton, Interview, Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution, Homeschool Movie, Homeschool Documentary, Homeschool Podcast, Christian, Parenting Podcast

While parenting is a joy-filled blessing, it can also be hard. How do we take our kids from childhood to adulthood in 18 short years and then send them off with the confidence that we have taught them well and done our very best to prepare them for a life of serving Christ? Yvette Hampton talks with Dr. Josh Mulvihill, author of the new book every parent should read, 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!
Come back Wednesday and Thursday for the rest of this conversation!
 
WATCH THE MOVIE! Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution is here. 
Get tickets today or bring Schoolhouse Rocked to your church or homeschool co-op.
Heidi St. John on the Myth of the "Perfect" Homeschool
“Schoolhouse Rocked” will rock your educational world to the foundations and give you and your kids great hope for the future! The old-school paradigm has proven broken and a new way of learning is here. Don’t miss this important film!” - Kirk Cameron
This is one of the most empowering tools I’ve seen for parents! I was honored to be interviewed in the film and am excited to see it come to fruition. It is amazing! – Israel Wayne, Family Renewal
Watch this full conversation on our YouTube channel.
 
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for 18 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of AWANA, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen. They homeschool their five children and live in Victoria, MN. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping, fishing, reading a great book, and a DIY project on their hobby farm.
Recommended Resources:
50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults, by Josh Mulvihill
Check out Josh’s other great books here!
What does the Bible Say about that?, by Kevin Swanson
Great Hymns of the Faith
CaroleJoySeid.com
 
Join Yvette Hampton and Rick Green for Constitutional Defense at Front Sight.
 
Support Schoolhouse Rocked
Has Schoolhouse Rocked been a blessing to you? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support the ongoing ministry of Schoolhouse Rocked.
Support from the homeschool community allows us provide resources and encouragement to homeschooling families around the world. 
Your support is making an ETERNAL impact!
"If you are new to homeschooling check out this podcast!! I’ve been feeling like I should homeschool for a couple years but was worried I couldn’t do it. Once the pandemic brought my kids home and I started seeing their emotional health and attitudes improve I decided to finally make the leap. This podcast has really encouraged me to make this a permanent change. Thank you for all your efforts in making this resource available!” - Autumn
“I was tearing up at the end of this film being reminded that my children are GIFTS from the Lord. I never want to abdicate my role and responsibility as their Mama. I cannot wait to share this film with everyone once it is released!!” - Amber
“We loved the movie and watched it with our children.  It left us encouraged in our choice to homeschool, as well as gave us confidence that we are not "messing" up our children's education or socialization!!” - Danielle
Whether or not you can donate, we ask that EVERY listener support the show by sharing it with your friends and family, by leaving a review on iTunes, and by praying for our team.
 
If you are considering homeschooling or just need some great homeschooling encouragement, get your FREE Homeschool Survival Kit from the producers of Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution and the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast.This 60+ page guide includes helpful articles, videos, and audio, for every stage of homeschooling, from pre-school to graduation. It will give you the encouragement you need to start strong and finish well! The Homeschool Survival Kit also includes an extensive directory of must-have homeschooling resources.
 
Please take a minute to visit our sponsors and thank them for helping to bring you The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. We ONLY work with companies we know and love! We happily recommend these companies and their products.
Are you looking for a new Math Curriculum? CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Visit CTCmath.com today to start your free trial today.
 
BJU Press Homeschool provides complete curriculum for preschool through 12th grade with both traditional textbooks and video courses available. Education from a Christian worldview reshapes how children see the world. BJU Press materials teach Christ's power and lordship through the Big Story of creation.
 
Patriot Academy - Inspiring Patriotism, Equipping Citizens, Educating A Nation. Patriot Academy has a Single, Bold Vision: To equip a new generation of leaders to champion the cause of freedom and truth in government, media, entertainment, education, as we help bring our nation back to the principles on which we were founded.
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) equips teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Using the Structure and Style™ writing method, IEW will give you the ability to fill young minds with language-building skills, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of excellent writing.
Podcast Topics: Josh Mulvihill, 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving home, Author, Pastor, Book,  Yvette Hampton, Interview, Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution, Homeschool Movie, Homeschool Documentary, Homeschool Podcast, Christian, Parenting Podcast

While parenting is a joy-filled blessing, it can also be hard. How do we take our kids from childhood to adulthood in 18 short years and then send them off with the confidence that we have taught them well and done our very best to prepare them for a life of serving Christ? Yvette Hampton talks with Dr. Josh Mulvihill, author of the new book every parent should read, 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!
 
WATCH THE MOVIE! Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution is here. 
Get tickets today or bring Schoolhouse Rocked to your church or homeschool co-op.
Heidi St. John on the Myth of the "Perfect" Homeschool
“Schoolhouse Rocked” will rock your educational world to the foundations and give you and your kids great hope for the future! The old-school paradigm has proven broken and a new way of learning is here. Don’t miss this important film!” - Kirk Cameron
This is one of the most empowering tools I’ve seen for parents! I was honored to be interviewed in the film and am excited to see it come to fruition. It is amazing! – Israel Wayne, Family Renewal
Watch this full conversation on our YouTube channel.
 
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for 18 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of AWANA, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen. They homeschool their five children and live in Victoria, MN. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping, fishing, reading a great book, and a DIY project on their hobby farm.
Recommended Resources:
50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: Raising Children to Godly Adults, by Josh Mulvihill
Check out Josh’s other great books here!
What does the Bible Say about that?, by Kevin Swanson
Great Hymns of the Faith
CaroleJoySeid.com
 
Join Yvette Hampton and Rick Green for Constitutional Defense at Front Sight.
 
Support Schoolhouse Rocked
Has Schoolhouse Rocked been a blessing to you? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support the ongoing ministry of Schoolhouse Rocked.
Support from the homeschool community allows us provide resources and encouragement to homeschooling families around the world. 
Your support is making an ETERNAL impact!
"If you are new to homeschooling check out this podcast!! I’ve been feeling like I should homeschool for a couple years but was worried I couldn’t do it. Once the pandemic brought my kids home and I started seeing their emotional health and attitudes improve I decided to finally make the leap. This podcast has really encouraged me to make this a permanent change. Thank you for all your efforts in making this resource available!” - Autumn
“I was tearing up at the end of this film being reminded that my children are GIFTS from the Lord. I never want to abdicate my role and responsibility as their Mama. I cannot wait to share this film with everyone once it is released!!” - Amber
“We loved the movie and watched it with our children.  It left us encouraged in our choice to homeschool, as well as gave us confidence that we are not "messing" up our children's education or socialization!!” - Danielle
Whether or not you can donate, we ask that EVERY listener support the show by sharing it with your friends and family, by leaving a review on iTunes, and by praying for our team.
 
If you are considering homeschooling or just need some great homeschooling encouragement, get your FREE Homeschool Survival Kit from the producers of Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution and the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast.This 60+ page guide includes helpful articles, videos, and audio, for every stage of homeschooling, from pre-school to graduation. It will give you the encouragement you need to start strong and finish well! The Homeschool Survival Kit also includes an extensive directory of must-have homeschooling resources.
 
Please take a minute to visit our sponsors and thank them for helping to bring you The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. We ONLY work with companies we know and love! We happily recommend these companies and their products.
Are you looking for a new Math Curriculum? CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Visit CTCmath.com today to start your free trial today.
 
BJU Press Homeschool provides complete curriculum for preschool through 12th grade with both traditional textbooks and video courses available. Education from a Christian worldview reshapes how children see the world. BJU Press materials teach Christ's power and lordship through the Big Story of creation.
 
Patriot Academy - Inspiring Patriotism, Equipping Citizens, Educating A Nation. Patriot Academy has a Single, Bold Vision: To equip a new generation of leaders to champion the cause of freedom and truth in government, media, entertainment, education, as we help bring our nation back to the principles on which we were founded.
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) equips teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Using the Structure and Style™ writing method, IEW will give you the ability to fill young minds with language-building skills, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of excellent writing.
Podcast Topics: Josh Mulvihill, 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving home, Author, Pastor, Book,  Yvette Hampton, Interview, Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution, Homeschool Movie, Homeschool Documentary, Homeschool Podcast, Christian, Parenting Podcast