The Power of His Love

The taste of a Sen-Sen takes Jan Jackson back to a memory of her Grandpa that is so precious she begins to cry. He used to pass those tiny, flat, licorice squares to her in church. They were packed with power (like today’s Tic-Tac). And like Sen-Sens, Grandpa’s tender touches, affirming words and approachability powerfully shaped this young girl into the woman God intended her to be.

“We did a lot of fun things with Grandpa—what the kids liked,” says Jan, “not what he liked, which meant he had to get to know us pretty well.” But he took the time to learn her interests. He’d ask questions, lots of them. He’d pay attention to her behavior and then affirm her with words like, “Honey, you are so unselfish.”

“His words meant a great deal to me,” says Jan. “When he’d say, for example, ‘You’re going to make a wonderful mommy,’ that planted a seed that I wanted to be a good mommy.”

He served as her spiritual mentor too. “I never felt like I was a nuisance,” she says. “Grandpa always had a big smile and a big hug that told me I was wanted.” Jan made the correlation early in her life, knowing that she was also wanted by Jesus—never a nuisance, never a bother.

What an incredible influence he has—the man who’s the first man in the life of a girl. “Every contact between a dad (or granddad) and daughter,” says Jan, “is powerful.”

Like Sen-Sens.