What I want my grandchildren to learn from me.

When you are a parent many pressures are on you to raise your child the proper way. There are manners to teach and basic educational skills, you have to educate your child about safety and how to utilize money, then there is life long lessons like staying healthy, being a friend and on and on. As a grandparent, many of those responsibilities are off your shoulders. A random thought that recently popped into my head has started me thinking about what I, as a grandmother would like to teach my grandchildren. What lessons do I think are important for them to remember as they grow? Being a list maker, I have come up with a list of the lessons that I would love to share with my grandchildren.
1. Learn how to enjoy your life. So many people go through life doing things that they think make them happy, or are designed to make others happy. How many people take the time to just think about their own life and the things that bring them enjoyment?
2. Find happiness in the simple things in life. Like a rain storm, or a bird singing. The smell of apple pie cooking or the words to a beautiful song. Enjoy the world that God has given you. . . the trees and their seasons, the water and its power, the sky and its many changes.
3. Realize that the greatest way to receive in life is to give. Practice how good it feels to help or support someone else in need. Appreciate what you have and share it with someone less fortunate.
4. Hold on to the people who love you and that you love. Find someone who makes you happy and content and keep them in your life.
5. Be grateful. Find something every day to be thankful for. It is the sad person indeed who cannot find something in their daily life to be glad about.
After all the trimmings are removed from our life, you know the "can't live without" things, it is important to be able to find happiness without them. Sure money, education and security are important, but to me the key to true living and happiness is about these lessons.
When I am gone, I hope Maddison and Mason can think back on some of the times we have spent together and remember how important it is to just be happy. Mom and Dad and the schools can teach the reading, writing and so on. But if I can help them find happiness in a book or writing in a journal, having and being a friend, or just enjoying nature then I will have done my job!