Have you ever thought about what you can learn from younger people?
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
1 Timothy 4:12
All-Wise God,
Just as we prayed yesterday
about seeing that each member of the body of Christ
has gifts given by the Spirit to bless the whole body,
today we remember to look to and learn from youth in our body.
I recently heard a podcast with a senior ministry team leader
interviewing a teenager from her church,*
and the young woman urged older people
to reach out to teenagers and younger people,
saying young people desperately need their wisdom and experience.
This young woman set an example for me
“in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”
Lord, we confess, sometimes we don’t know
what to do with younger generations,
and yet, if we will look at them with compassion
as Jesus looked on people of every age,
if we will listen with curiosity,
we have much to learn.
And, as this teenaged woman so wisely said,
“We need people in our lives
who have walked with Christ much longer than we have.”
Oh, Heavenly Father, may we heed her cry;
may we be willing to learn from younger people
and to pour into their lives.
In Jesus’ compassionate name. Amen.
Read 1 Timothy 4:6-16.
*Podcast can be found here: “Sanctuary Spectacles: Being a Teenage Woman in the Church”
