What You Leave Behind

Most grandparents, if you ask them what they want to leave their grandchildren, will say something like: I want them to know they were loved. Or: I want them to have faith. Or simply: I want my life to have mattered to them.

These aren't small wants. They're the deepest kind.

But a legacy of faith isn't something that just happens. It isn't the automatic result of being a good person or attending church or loving your family well. It's something that has to be built — intentionally, consistently, over years and decades.

The grandparents whose influence echoes across generations aren't necessarily the ones with the most resources or the most time. They're the ones who understood that legacy is made in the ordinary, repeated moments of a life lived on purpose.

Here's how to build one.

Section 1: Define What You Actually Want to Pass On

Before you can build a legacy, you have to know what you're building.

Most grandparents have never sat down and answered this question clearly: What specific beliefs, values, and practices do I most want my grandchildren to carry into their adult lives? Not in a vague sense — but specifically. What does faith look like in your family? What stories define who you are? What do you believe about God, about people, about what makes a life worth living?

When you can answer those questions clearly, you can begin passing them on with intention rather than hoping they'll absorb something in the general vicinity of your life.

Consider writing it down. A personal statement of faith and values — even a single page — gives you something concrete to return to and share. It becomes a reference point for the stories you tell, the conversations you initiate, the traditions you create.

What do you want your grandchildren to say about you at your funeral? Start there, and work backwards.

Section 2: Legacy Is Built in Small Moments, Not Grand Ones

We tend to imagine legacy-building as dramatic: the deathbed conversation, the milestone birthday speech, the letter read at a graduation. And those moments matter. But they're not where legacy is actually made.

Legacy is made in the ordinary.

It's made in the way you respond when things don't go your way — and your grandchild is watching. It's made in the prayer you offer before a meal, the way you talk about neighbors, the kindness you extend to a stranger. It's made in the question you ask when you call, the interest you take in what they care about, the way you show up when it would have been easy not to.

Grandchildren are forming a picture of who you are from thousands of small observations. That picture — more than any single conversation — is what they'll carry with them.

This is both humbling and freeing. It means you don't need extraordinary moments. You need faithful ordinary ones.

Section 3: Write It Down

One of the most underused legacy tools a grandparent has is a pen.

Letters. Cards. Notes tucked into a bag or left on a pillow. Written words carry a permanence that spoken words don't — they can be returned to, re-read, kept. Long after you're gone, a grandchild reading a letter in your handwriting will hear your voice.

Consider writing:

• An annual birthday letter to each grandchild — what you love about who they're becoming, what you're praying for them in the year ahead
• A faith testimony — your own story of how you came to believe, in your own words, for each grandchild to have
• Milestone letters — for graduations, weddings, the birth of their own children
• A legacy letter — a document that captures your values, your beliefs, and what you most hope for them

You don't need to be a writer. You just need to be honest. The words that matter most are the ones that sound like you.

Section 4: Involve the Middle Generation

One of the most important — and most often overlooked — components of grandparent legacy is the relationship with your adult children.

Your grandchildren's parents are the primary shapers of their world. If your relationship with them is strained, your access to your grandchildren is limited. If it's strong, you become a consistent, trusted presence across generations.

Building a legacy of faith means investing in that middle generation too — not just as the parents of your grandchildren, but as people you love and support. Ask how you can serve them. Be a resource, not an added stress. Align your parenting values where you can and navigate differences with grace.

When grandparents and parents are working together, the faith environment for grandchildren becomes immeasurably richer. You're not trying to undo what the parents are doing. You're reinforcing and extending it.

Section 5: Resources That Help You Build with Intention

You don't have to figure this out alone. There are tools designed specifically to help grandparents build the kind of legacy that lasts.

👉 A Grand Way to Live is a warm, practical guide for grandparents who want to grandparent with purpose — covering faith, presence, prayer, and what it means to finish well. It's an ideal starting point for grandparents who want to be more intentional.

👉 The Grandparenting Matters Workbook pairs with a full video seminar series and walks grandparents through the biblical vision for their role, practical strategies for leaving a faith legacy, and how to grandparent with purpose across every season of life. The companion Grandparenting Matters DVD brings the seminar to your home or church group.

👉 My Faith Stories is one of the most powerful legacy tools we've encountered — a guided journey that helps grandparents preserve their testimony in a professionally printed hardcover book their family will treasure for generations. You don't need to be a writer. Through 50 guided prompts, you'll capture your faith story — childhood memories, the moments God showed up, the prayers answered, the hard seasons survived — at your own pace, over up to twelve months. Add unlimited photos, record your voice or video for every question (QR codes printed right in the book let your grandchildren hear you tell the story themselves), and let AI writing tools help you go deeper without changing a single word of your own voice.

Psalm 78 calls us to tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord — so that even children yet to be born will put their trust in God. My Faith Stories is a practical, beautiful way to answer that call. Much like Joshua's 12-stone memorial, it becomes a living monument to God's faithfulness in your life — one reflection at a time.

“As I answered the questions, I got emotional being reminded of how much God has been at work in my life. My oldest son is now reading his copy and sharing his memories of those same moments with his wife — it's strengthened his walk with the Lord.” — David

The Generations You'll Never Meet (while still here on earth)

Here's the long view: the faith legacy you build today doesn't stop with your grandchildren.

The grandchild who grows up knowing they were prayed for, loved without conditions, and shown what faith looks like in a real life — that grandchild becomes a parent. And then a grandparent. And the things you poured into them get poured into children you'll never hold and grandchildren you'll never meet while still here on earth.

That's what a legacy is. Not a monument. Not a name on a building. It's faith, love, and intention passed from one life to the next, across generations you can't see from here.

You have more influence than you know. Use it well.

Start now. Start small. Start faithful.

That is your legacy.

👉 And it can start with a single conversation. My Wish of All Wishes is a beautifully illustrated book designed for grandparents to read one-on-one with their grandchildren — and it carries what may be your greatest hope of all: that your grandchild will be with you in eternity.

The book opens with a warm, fun conversation about wishes — the kind grandchildren love — and gently moves into a clear, age-appropriate presentation of the gospel, explaining that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. It includes a biblically-grounded, joyful vision of eternal life that children can grasp and hold on to. Inside the front cover is a dedication page where you can inscribe the book to your grandchild, making it a keepsake they'll keep long after the reading is done. Space on the first and last pages lets you add your own handwritten note — words they may return to for the rest of their lives.

Legacy isn't only built over decades. Sometimes it's built in an afternoon, on a couch, with a book and a child who is listening.

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Ready to grandparent with more intention? Browse the full Legacy Coalition Store for workbooks, conversation tools, and more — all designed to help you leave a lasting faith legacy.