Every time I cross paths with my friend Meredith she is always smiling and always ready to say a word of encouragement to those around her. You will always find her whenever help was needed and always saying the words a trusted friend will always say, “I will be praying.”

I am grateful to have Meredith Wilson share with us today a word of encouragement on how Faithful Obedience looks like in the empty nester years.

Faithful Obedience in the Empty Nester years
by Meredith Wilson

I came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of nineteen. While the early years were rocky, the Lord is faithful and he has placed me on solid ground. I am grandmother now, with four grown children. Three of them are married, and in September my eighth grandchild will arrive.

It has been delightful to watch my children grow up, and a blessing to have them as friends and best company now. My single daughter is such a friend and I love to hang out with her. Her life is busy and I try to keep up with all that is going on. I try to be a faithful friend to her and to my other children, praying for them in their new roles as husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers and praying for their spouses as well.

When my eldest daughter was married, they lived nearby for a year. Then she and her husband and my first grandchild moved to Britain. Flying to the United Kingdom was not in our budget, so I immediately began work cleaning houses and later worked for a small book company. This has allowed me to travel to see them. I have actually been to England sixteen times in the last ten years. I’ve been able to help with the births of each of my grandchildren. What a blessing. My second daughter has lived in Canada for the last five years. I have been there for the births of her children too.

While I would choose being closer to my daughters, this is the Lord’s will for them and I must align my will with his. I need to be content and not grumble. And the Lord has truly blessed this. I love being a grandmother. I feel very close to all the grandkids. We FaceTime or talk all the time. I try to be involved in my daughters lives so that it is as if they have never left town.

There was a period of time where it looked like my daughter’s family in Britain would be coming to live in Idaho. I was so excited, could this be possible? While I prayed it would happen, and in my heart was hoping to never have to fly again to England, I also knew it was an opportunity to trust God and praise him even if the answer was no. I remember telling my daughter that no matter the outcome, we needed to be content and thankful. We will have all eternity with our children and grandchildren. What a mercy! It’s important to have this long view of God’s story.

I think it’s also important to pray for my grandchildren as they grow up. I have several verses in my bible that I pray for each of them. Our heavenly father loves our grandchildren more than we do, and it is a privilege to lift them up to his throne.

One of the blessings of the empty nester years is the opportunity to re-evaluate your relationship with your husband. Am I still thinking about how to please him in our home? Am I cooking his favorite meals? What does he like to do on his days off? Am I joining him? Is he still my best friend? I have always appreciated my husband’s friendship. Make the most of this time.

Now that I am no longer working, I have spent time in prayer asking the Lord how he wants to use me. It has made me realize that there are certain things I wish I’d cultivated when I was younger. But I can’t go back, so I have been asking God how I can serve him. I love to be busy but I want to be fruitful. I am reminded of Psalm 90:17, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us, yes, the work of our hands establish thou it.”

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Find the introduction and the index to this series here.