Respecting Your Elders & Learning From the Young

Respecting Your Elders & Learning From the Young

Are you at that age when you start noticing that your doctors and bosses are younger than you?  When the "young" start giving you wise advice from their many years of experience?  I'm now middle aged and have just started noticing these situations.

We all have a tendency to look down on those younger than us whether it's a younger sibling, a younger friend or somebody that we work with who happens to be less aged.  Instead of focusing on age differences we should be focusing on our actions and our words.

Let's look at the verse above - "set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."  Yes, even the young can set an example to the older - remember we are only responsible for our own actions and our own words.  We will never be held accountable for what others say or do.  Even parents ultimately have to ask their children to explain their own actions.

To the Younger:  How do you respect someone older than you while giving them advice?

All that matters is the way you act towards that person and the way that you speak to that person.  Rolling your eyes and giving up before even trying to explain something because "older people don't understand the modern age" is insulting.  The key to answering this question is RESPECT, which is a feeling of admiration showing that someone is valuable and important.
(On a similar topic - read: What Ever Happened to Respect?)

To the Older:  Yes there is some truth to "being older equals more experiences and knowledge" but when did "wisdom" become arrogant?

This is just as insulting as what I mentioned above - thinking that you always have the answer because you have lived longer.  Unfortunately, difficult life experiences can happen to the very young also.  Age does not guarantee wisdom.

"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' "  Matthew 19:14

"Out of the mouth of babes" a saying that was taken from Matthew 21:16 also shows us that God can inspire good actions and wise words from anyone of any age.

We are all at different stages in our earthly Childhood but we are ALL CHILDREN of God.  There will always be somebody younger than our current age - Let's help each other along the way without focusing on age.

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