Browsing Tag

Grandchildren

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Lads. My Heart is Full.

Posted on April 6, 2026


My heart is so full. Knowing the preparation that goes behind the thousands of children who participated in scores of events prior to and at the Lads convention, I’m overcome with gratitude for what parents and grandparents are contributing right now to the church in the latter half of the 21st century. Unless the trumpet blows beforehand, some of the kids who were shining this weekend will still be working and shining for him as the wise and elderly in the body, even as the calendar page is turned to the 22nd century. Faith works…and the faith that worked for the events of this last weekend will still be working for generations. My heart is full for the legacy so many are working to leave. 

I will be gone to the brighter side in a few years. But I am praying those living room speech practices, the big allotments of time we spent in reviewing and repeating Bible bowl answers with four of our grandkids, the way Colleyanna achieved getting the rhythm and beat of 4:4 song leading, the verse that resonated in our hearts over and over as Eliza rehearsed it: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!” (James 4:8)—-I am praying that these little things will grow like the mustard seed, into glory from their lives to their Lord. I am praying that the 100 verses memorized by five of my children this year will grow into bigger and bigger faith, because I trust him when he said “Faith comes by hearing the word of God” (Romans 10:17)

(l-r) Colleyanna, Lily, Ezra, Ellis, Maggie and Eliza Jane

I trust him! Ellis’s speech was about his favorite thing…nutcrackers. He explained how some nutcrackers are fake. They cannot “really quack de nuts.” He said it’s the same way with Christians. Some are fake and some are real. Then he said that he wants to be like Daniel, who was the real thing. He wanted to follow God even when it was hard. How I am trusting God, that as their parents pour time and the Word into the children, who are my six grandchildren, that the product will be a faith that works! My deepest desire in this life is to be with all of them in the next.

At the Nashville convention alone this year there were 10,000 participants! Ten-thousand PARTICIPANTS, excluding the non-participating people who were attendees. Although, I cannot bear to think about one of these 10,000 being lost, I know the devil is both busy and crafty. He desperately wants to break the chain of faith in your family. But the way that he responds to our drawing near to God is by fleeing. Did you get that? As Eliza’s verse says, the devil flees when we draw near to God! When you pull your children into the Word, you put the devil on the run. How can we be sparse in our time in the Word while we generously give it to soccer, baseball, school work and entertainment? When we draw near to the things of this world while excluding the eternal things, the devil loves it. He doesn’t have to flee. He just presents himself and entices our children through the unimportant things we love. He presents secularism in the schoolwork. He presents worldliness in the entertainment and he presents misplaced priorities in the sports…IF we are doing these things to the exclusion of getting our kids in the Word! 

So gratitude from a deep place in our hearts today for the army of parents and grandparents, mentors and ministers who spent massive amounts of time preparing kids for the spiritual stuff that makes life worth living and draws them near to God. They can’t all yet understand the power that is working in them, but they will know, one day soon, that it is the power of an  unyielding faith that will lead them over Jordan and safely to the throne. I’ll be waiting with expectation for them!

Ezra and our brother, Roy Johnson

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

I’m going to the airport!

Posted on November 14, 2025

I’m really excited about this day. Today I am going to an airport to pick up my husband as he flies in from India! I know in his jet lag, he’s going to be sedated. When I pick him up, it will be 2 a.m. in his India brain. I can wait for the stories, but I am excited to hear them. 

There are stories about hundreds of orphans that he has been able to see. He took a big bag of Halloween candy donated by the grands, from their trick-or-treating. Every time he called, the kids wanted to know if he had passed out their candy. “Did you take a video?” 

There are stories about dozens of widows who were given sewing machines to provide sustenance. He sent some photos of them. I can’t wait to hear the stories behind the pictures. I think the widows are often connected (placed in the orphanages) to care for the orphans, too. I can’t wait to hear about that.  

Best of all, there were hundreds of baptisms…souls that were pricked and responded to the offer made possible by the blood of God, the Messiah, on a cross at Calvary 2000 years ago. These are souls I will be seeing. I can picture, in heaven,  Glenn introducing me to some of these 600-plus people who were baptized as Glenn and the two godly men who invited him to go, Glenn Homes and Zach Holmes, preached in a country where the retention rate of New Testament Christians is over 90 percent. I believe they preached in about 60 places. I am certain that Glenn said he, personally, preached over 25 times. 

But Glenn kept saying, “I did not convert these people. The faithful men there are constantly studying with these people, baptizing them into Christ, and working to help them be faithful.” But to witness hundreds putting on Christ is a phenomenon that we may never see in the United States, due to the widespread misunderstanding here, even among good and moral people, that salvation is not dependent on submission in baptism. (In short, we are often too proud to think we need to do something for our salvation….to obey.) The sad reality that people do not respond here, in great numbers, is also due to our wealth. We are often lulled by our riches into a mentality that dismisses our utter dependence on God, while offering a plethora of glittering entertainment choices and diversions that constantly distract us from the only ultimately important pursuit of life: getting to heaven. 

But I am going to the airport. As I do, I am going to pray that the after-effects of this long trip will permeate into the hearts of six grandchildren, who are eagerly anticipating the stories, too. Their Papa has already told me several new emphases He would like to inject into some Family Bible times with them, when they visit. Their hearts are getting ready for their own eventual submission in faith. One of them asked me this week, “What if I do get ready to be baptized? How will I know when it is the time?” 

The answers to those kinds of questions are catalysts, ever drawing them nearer to faith’s lifetime surrender. I am so thankful for the conversations along the way. I am thankful for opportunities like this trip that give the conversation new fodder and context, as a little bonus, to follow this great work in that country. 

And I am thankful to have “the greatest fixer,” as Eliza calls him, home! 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Rock that is Higher

Posted on November 5, 2025

I’m not sure exactly how I’m this many years old and have lived in Gurley, Alabama for exactly 1/3  of those years and have never heard about or hiked this trail till yesterday. I’m so glad I found the Bethel Springs Nature Preserve, thanks to my sister Sami, who sent me a link with a beautiful photo of a waterfall and she just asked “Have you ever been here?” This amazing gorge is just fifteen minutes from my house and, if you hike to the top, you feel like you are even closer to God’s house. (But wear a good tread on your feet and take some water for the arduous part of the trail prior to the top. If you take kids, be prepared for yellow jackets, slips and slides, and be sure someone knows where you are going, just in case. Also, if you have kids along, give yourself a good three hours before dark if you intend to see the falls. You do not want to be in this beautiful place after dark, but your cell phone internet will likely work throughout the trek!) 

The most basic, most important lessons, for kids, seem to most frequently be learned outdoors. Sometimes in the frenzy of getting all the workbook pages done, we forget this. The lessons for little hearts were everywhere yesterday. Here are a few that come to mind. 

1. Empathy. Character and success require (absolutely demand) empathy. It’s not a big deal when someone else is getting stung or sliding down, or getting blisters on her feet, but when it gets personal, it’s suddenly urgent. Apologies came when the personal moments prodded them. “I’m sorry I said ‘You just have to stop that screaming when that bee stung you.I know you were hurting.'”

2. Sharing. I thought …”nature preserve”—like Green Mountain or the short swamp trail kind of thing. I should have done a little more research. I did not prepare for what came close to a rock climbing challenge for many yards and, with three kids, you can’t just jog back to the car for more of whatever you need.  I didn’t bring along nearly enough water for that sort of obstacle course. But Colleyanna did. And she and Ezra had a good bottle for refilling at the waterfall. And we all survived on their happily shared provisions. 

3. Perseverance. There are four great trails in the preserve. One is a baby trail, a little loop that I’d recommend for anyone with a stroller. The next is also a short little hike down to a manmade landing where you view an 1800s spring house “refrigerator”. The third is a slow but arduous climb to the falls. This one was a commitment. It took a couple of hours of climbing over rough terrain.  We came to points when some of the kids thought, “We just can’t keep going.” Someone else would say “But we’ve come so far that, now, that the closest route back to our car is to push on and connect to the other trail that descends. “But we can’t.” …”I think we can.”…”But what if it gets dark in here?”…”We still have a couple of hours…”But we don’t have much water.”  But we had reached the point of no return. Heading back down without reaching the falls was now going to take longer than getting there and descending on the other trail. So we learned we had to persevere.

4. Goodness. The word is in the Bible some 50 times and it most often refers to the goodness of our God. When you look at giant boulders placed by God, to which it’s so very difficult to even ascend, much less impossible to move, and you realize that His springs of sustenance flow over and from those rocks, you stand amazed at His goodness. You think of words like these from the Psalmist: 

O my soul, you have said to the LORD,

“You are my Lord,

My goodness is nothing apart from You.” 

You feel your own smallness and sinfulness in the presence of a mighty and good God who allows you to call him”Father.” 

5. Guidance. The signs on the trees marking the trail were teeny…easy to miss; about four by four. They were minimized to prohibit distraction from His beauty, I’m sure.  But as the darkness began to loom in the late afternoon, and, still there were no sounds except the leaves rustling beneath little feet, I began to have a better eye for those little signs. I had to be SURE I was on the right path. There were no other cars in that parking lot, by now. That meant there were no other souls in that giant forest gorge except for me and my three little ones. I started to think about preserving water and cell service. I took off my socks and gave them to the child whose feet were blistering. She had to keep coming. We could not sit down and nurse the sting, the blisters or the slightly sprained wrist that had “caught the fall”. The kids started to be eagle-eye watchers for those little signs and they even started a game of “How-many signs-will-there-be-before-the car?” (Ezra won. There were ten more and he had guessed exactly ten. But passing ten signs is almost a “forever.” ) There were occasional  mini-celebrations when we discovered a marker that proved we had taken the right turn at the giant rock that seemed to be inviting us in more than one direction or that we had opted correctly at the sign that seemed to be putting us back in a circle to the same point. Guidance became key. Words on a sign on a tree, instead of how we “felt” about our direction, were everything. That’s how it is with the printed word of God. There’s no successful navigation for lost souls without the WORD of life. 

But the climax of the climb, of course, was at the very tip-top of two converging trails. I have honestly never heard kids so excited as when we actually heard the water…except for the squeals when we actually saw it. “I see it! I see it, Mammy. Oh Mammy it’s beautiful!” Those exclamations were loud and exuberant cries echoing in that canyon. I’m thinking that’s a little microcosm of what it’s going to be like after the arduous climb that is life. And, in that case, there will not be a descending trail. There will not be the sad “Mammy, do we have to leave already? I want to stay here. Let me get one more drink.” We will get to stay. No darkness will loom. No fear of misdirection or of running out of water. We will get to stay—where the Lamb is the light of endless day and the waters of the river of life flow freely. All fear will be forever eradicated. 

From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. (Psalm 61:2)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Kids and Traditions

Posted on October 19, 2025

Last week, I took my second little pilgrimage, for my little granddaughter’s birthday, to a cabin in the Chickasaw State Park for a couple of nights. There’s one important lesson I solidified in my grandmother mind through the events of this second trip; one thing I really didn’t think about last year on the first trip to the cabin. 

Maggie wanted to go to the same park. She wanted me to try and get the same cabin. Once we got there, she wanted to make the same brownies, play in the exact part of the lake, find the wounded bird pavilion, go to the park office and look at the same stuffed animals, and roast marshmallows. She wanted her little brother, Ellis to come for the second night. All of these things were the things we did last year.  She even wanted to go to FHU and eat in the cafeteria. She wanted exactly the same things we had done the previous year! I was struck by this. What I might call “old news” or “monotony”, Maggie called exciting. I learned anew, that in the minds of children, tradition is a precious commodity. Maggie wanted her little brother to come with us on the second night, but not the first…just like last year. 

I remember that family traditions were important in my own childhood and in the years of Caleb’s and Hannah’s childhood. But I had never given a lot of thought to the grandparent/grandchild traditions we can and should be building. Why are family traditions (especially annual ones) so very important in childrearing? 

  1. They create a spirit of sanctification; not in the sense of sacredness, but in the sense of set-apartness. Traditions set our family apart from the “rest” of the people. Only our little circle can know and remember certain joys that happened in shared traditions. This makes membership in the family exclusive and special, in a good way. 
  2. They let the children know that there are certain people/events in our lives that are important enough to repeat. The memories are solidified and the events are anticipated eagerly from year to year. 
  3. Fun traditions make our children know that the Christian parents/grandparents know how to have fun in a better way than does the world around them. This is going to be important down the road. 
  4. Traditions provide a memory bank, for the future, that is just for your little circle to share—in conversations, in letters, in photos—all through the coming years. These are things that, one day, will be discussed, with fondness, at funerals. 
  5. Done the best way, traditions together are full of talk, devotion to and reverence for God. You don’t have to be in a worship assembly to be putting faith in kids. Now, don’t miss the worship assemblies of your people, but some of the best faith building times, in the growing years, are the family Bible times and the all-day-long Deuteronomy 6 kind of teaching in life. They will remember this teaching when they are remembering family traditions. 
  6. Traditions help children find steadiness and perseverance in the things that matter. It will become hard to find the time to repeat activities when your children become teens. When they watch you work around schedules to be sure it still happens, it builds stability and lets them know that they are important on your list of priorities. 

Repetition is absolutely necessary on every learning curve. I hope yon  are carrying out wholesome family traditions.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“Seriously, Mammy?!…my great, great, great, great grandfather?!”

Posted on June 30, 2025

I’m really trying hard not to post all the time about grandkids. You could not tell that? Well, as Anne Shirley of Green Gables says, “If you only knew how many times I want to post about them and don’t!” 

But I have to write about this. Colleyanna and I are reading the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Currently, I am reading “Farmer Boy” aloud to her.  I love how that book offers the series a stark  contrast between the very primitive 1800’s lifestyle of the Kansas prairie and that of the wealthier farmer in New York. It doesn’t hurt that Almonzo’s sister is Eliza Jane, either.  Last week the chapter was about Almonzo’s mama making homemade doughnuts. 

As I read, I remembered my grandmother making doughnuts for breakfast in my favorite place in the world—that kitchen at 305 Goodlett Street— in the 1960s. I recall that my older brother, John, really loved those doughnuts. I think she made them most often for him and especially during the summer that he lived with my grandparents and went to summer school in their little town of Jacksonville. But, oh! I loved them so much, too!

So I got out that old cookbook  that we made one Christmas shortly after her death, for all the family and quickly found that recipe. The doughnut recipe was well marked, having arrows pointing to it from all directions. I had never made this recipe (or any homemade doughnuts, ever). It has been some fifty years since I have tasted these doughnuts, But I found myself smelling and tasting them as I peered inside that memory. 

So, I got out my old dough bowl, hand carved by my great great grandfather . I could hardly believe that I was watching Colleyanna shape the dough on a dough board/bowl that was made by her great-great-great-great grandfather, Joe Phillips, in the era of the “Farmer Boy,” himself. I asked her if she’d like to have that dough bowl one day. She thoughtfully said, “I’d like for my mother to have it first.” (It was probably used by my grandmother when she made the doughnuts those first times around.) 

We fried those doughnuts in the old iron skillet that was also passed down through the generations. I lifted each one carefully and Colleyanna rolled them in powdered sugar. And just like Almonzo’s sister, Eliza Jane, loved the doughnuts, so did Colleyanna’s sister, Eliza Jane. 

I’m thankful for all the memories of time with grandparents. If Colleyanna grows up with some of those sweet memories of her own, I’ll be all the more blessed!

And it smelled a lot like my grandmother’s house, in my kitchen, all day long.

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Holiday Contest 2024…All about the Grandmothers!

Posted on December 2, 2024

Do you have your tree up yet?  It’s time to get the stockings hung again. I hope you can make The Colley House a part of your gift giving this year.

We, at The Colley House, would like to be the givers, each Christmas, too! Four lucky winners will receive $25.00 gift cards in your email on December 16th. Here’s how you enter:

Write, in 200 words or less, what special grandmother holiday memory you have. It can be about some special memory with your grandmother from your own childhood…OR…it can be a memory you, as a grandmother are currently making or have made with your grandkids. It can even be some happy idea you’ve learned from another grandmother. It can be about her tree, the smell of her cookies or your own baking traditions with your grands. It can be about the holiday traditions that are between your mama and your kids. Just two things are essential: Your writing has to include something about a grandmother AND it has to include something about the Christmas holidays.  It can include a recipe, a poem, a song, or a photo with caption (and none of those addendums will count in the 200 word limitation.)

Winner will be chosen on December 13th and gift cards will be emailed that weekend, so you can get your free item(s) back in time for holiday giving. Only submissions emailed to byhcontest@gmail.com will be considered. By submitting, you give permission for your submission to be printed on The Colley House site.

We hope you all have the best of holidays and that your new year is filled with HIS abundance. We are excited about a couple of new products we will be completing (three, actually and prayerfully) in 2025, so stay tuned.