My grandparents are two of my favorite people. I love spending time with them and have been close to them all my life. Throughout these years I have learned a lot from what they have said and shown me through their actions. Here are five major life lessons I have learned from them:
1. Age is just a number.
My grandparents are two pretty opposite people, but neither one allows their age to define them. My grandpa will forever be a kid and much to my grandmother’s embarrassment, rarely acts his age in public. He loves to have fun and be goofy and doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him. My grandmother, on the other hand, doesn’t act her age in other ways. She looks about 20 years younger than she actually is. She has a healthy diet most of the time and goes to the gym more times in a week than I do in a year. Together, they have taught me that I’m only as old as I want to be. If I take care of my body and resolve to act like I'm much younger than my license might indicate, then I can, in a way, prolong growing older.
2. You get in life what you work for.
Although you can’t always tell, my grandparents have accumulated quite a bit of money. Despite having an abundance of money, they don’t act like they’re wealthy. They are both very frugal and very rarely spend their money on things that aren’t on sale or pretty cheap to begin with. They didn’t always have money; both of them worked most of their lives just to barely make ends meet. They spent all their lives working and saving their money so that they could have this comfortable lifestyle now that they’re older. Since they know what it’s like to be without, they don’t take the money they have now for granted. From this I have learned that I can’t expect to have a luxurious lifestyle and get everything I want right away. It will take years of hard work and saving for me to get even close to their level. I am not entitled to anything, and I should be grateful to have a comfortable lifestyle with all of my needs met.
3. Jesus should come before everything.
My grandparents are two of my biggest role models when it comes to their relationships with Jesus. If there’s ever anything I need prayer for in my life, I can pretty much guarantee they’ll be covering me in prayer. I can't even begin to count all of the times I have heard them tell me or someone else that they're continuously praying for me or whoever it is and whatever need there might be. They live out the Christian life every day, and with every action they make, you can see a reflection of Jesus. They are actively involved in church and willing to help out anyone who needs their assistance. With every decision they make, they look for guidance from the Lord. They have taught me to put the Lord first in my life and center everything around him.
4. Marriage isn't a Nicholas Sparks movie
My grandparents have taught me that love isn’t like the movies. It’s hard work and they don’t always get along. In fact, a lot of the time I’m around them they’re bickering. The bickering, however, is kind of endearing. What starts out as an issue one of them has with the other almost always ends in them making a joke and getting over it. They’ve shown me that marriage isn’t always easy, but at the end of the day, all that matters is that you put your differences aside and love each other.
5. Family comes before yourself
Family comes first for my grandparents. No matter which one of us needs help, they’re always the first ones to help out. I can’t even begin to count the number of times one of them has had to pick me up from school because I was sick, or take me to work because something was wrong with my car. They always are offering to help out and give me money, most of the time without me asking, and don’t expect more than a “thank you” in return. They not only act this way towards me, but to everyone in my family. They have shown me how important family is in life and that I should put my family before myself.
