Bridging the Generation Gap
I just finished reading As Iron Sharpens Iron by Howard Hendricks and, although the book was written to men during the Promise Keepers era, it gave me a lot of food for thought.
About ten years ago, I began to feel a void of older women who were willing to pour into a younger woman to whom they were not related. Although being an age that should render itself to both physical and spiritual maturity, I really wanted an older woman who would take me under wing, be a sounding board, give me counsel, pray with me when I needed it, etc. I decided that older women did not want that responsibility. They had lives of their own and were unwilling to invest their time and energy in that way.
On the flip side, I have heard older women complain that young women do not want to learn from them, and the more I have studied the last couple of generations, I must concede that they are right. Young women today tend to treat older women as though they don’t understand what today’s moms go through, as though life were easier when Grandma was raising children. Peers and blogs are the go-tos while the ones who toiled and sacrificed to bring us where we are today get overlooked.
Ever since I was a young girl, I loved to hang out with older girls. When I was under ten, those girls were teenagers. As a teenager, I preferred to be with women in their 20s and 30s. In my 30s, I found that my friends were often 10 to 20 years older than I was. And so it went. Now that I’m approaching 50, I still love to spend time with older women and am grateful for those who allow me to do so. I learn a lot by listening and observing them. But I also try to be available to my sisters or younger women who want to get together. I don’t know if I am inputting into their lives in any meaningful way, but I would rather make an effort than not do so.
I don’t know where you find yourself in the seasons of life, but I would like to remind you that you should always be learning and growing. Don’t neglect the older people in your life who might know a few more things than you give them credit for. But don’t fail to listen to young people either. You may be coming from two different worlds, but maybe you can help each other understand where the generation gap is and seal it a bit.
A good article.
Men need those mentors themselves.
But allow me to give one point, the older you get, you may find you need to have a younger person in your life to help you through situations.
I am noticing it getting harder to find someone to talk with as I am getting older.