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Painting/photo of Jerusalem Temple-Casual English Bible

Why Grandpa feels antsy

Stephen M. Miller
tummy of pregnant woman
PREGNANT WITH EXPECTATION. There’s an addition coming to the family very soon. I’ve got my Grandpa handkerchief in my pocket and my camera batteries charged. Photo by bradfordst219, flickr, CC 2.

I’M KINDA NERVOUS.

I became a grandpa on December 30. A grandson, Owen. I’m gonna become a grandpa for the second time anytime now. A granddaughter I’m calling Patricia. We don’t know her name because my son and daughter-in-law are keeping it as a surprise. So I’m calling her Patricia because her due date was originally St. Patrick’s Day.

It’s biblical to name a child in connection with something related to the birth. You can see it in a short video I made recently: Naming Babies the Bible Way.

So why am I nervous? I’m not the one on the table. Nor is my wife – not this time.

Yet I actually feel more nervous than I remember being when either of our kids were born. I was relaxed enough to take pictures like I was shooting for National Geographic Magazine.

You’d think a daughter-in-law might feel more distant, more loosely connected to you, and less a part of your life.

I mean if we put her on a time card, she would certainly spend much more time with her friends and coworkers than she would with her father-in-law. As it should be.

  • Still, I wonder how many of her friends fill their eyeballs with running water when they pause to think about what’s coming very soon.
  • And I wonder how many of her colleagues find themselves stopping right in the middle of doing something, to pray for a healthy baby and a safe delivery.
  • And I wonder if any of them know ahead of time that they will melt when they first hold her little girl.

It doesn’t make sense to me.

Why would I feel more antsy, unsettled, and less focused these days than I did on the days just before my son was born?

I mean, for heaven’s sake, I’m writing a blog article about it because it’s hard to think of anything else.

Could it be that it’s because after my son was born I fell in love again? An irrational kind of love. Protective. Proud. Unshakable.

It’s a love that doesn’t go away. It doesn’t fade. On the contrary, it grows to embrace everything and everyone our child cares about. Wife. Children. Even the in-laws.

Is there such a thing as a friend who can love someone the way their parents do?

Maybe I’m being selfish.

Maybe I’m so on edge these days because it’s all about me since I know that when I’m dead and gone, the best thing I’ll leave behind is my son and his wife and their children, and my daughter and her husband and their children.

A Jewish songwriter put it this way: “Children are God’s best gift…his generous legacy” (Psalm 127:3).

When I have written my last word and my last book has gone out of print and my name has been lost to the Steve Miller Band, my children and my grandchildren will tell stories about me.

Maybe I will figure out the mystery of my nervousness later. For now, I’m finding it tough to figure out anything or to concentrate on anyone other than my very pregnant daughter-in-law, my son, and my coming granddaughter.

Tell me I’m normal.

For more about family

  • Secret to a happy family
  • A family worth singing about
  • Family time: whatever it takes
  • A song for family reunions
  • Oddballs in family trees: mine and Jesus’

Free review books

If you haven’t gotten a free copy of a book from me before, and you live Stateside, I have some review copies of my newest release A Quick, Guided Tour Through the Bible.

Send me a note and as long as I have copies available, I’ll send you one at no cost to you.

I get author copies of books from my publishers, and I don’t sell them. I give them away to help get people into the Bible who might not otherwise go there.

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About Stephen M. Miller

STEPHEN M. MILLER is an award winning bestselling Christian author of easy-reading books about the Bible and Christianity and author of the Casual English Bible® paraphrase. His books have sold over two million copies and include The Complete Guide to the Bible and Who’s and Where’s Where in the Bible.

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