THE YOUNG AND THE OLD
Proverbs 10:19 “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”
Proverbs 12:18 “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Proverbs 16:21 “The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction.”
Proverbs 17:27 “A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered.”
Ecclesiastes 5:2 “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”
Ecclesiastes 6:11 “The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?”
One of the things that will begin to take place in these last days is a bond between the young and the old, what I see as – zeal and wisdom.
When I first got saved and joined a young people’s movement called Operation Mobilization I realized that we had tremendous zeal, but sometimes (many times) we did lack wisdom. It would have been great if we had ‘fathers’ of the faith to mentor us. The desire that many of us had was to latch on to anybody who had more experience and wisdom than us and try to learn all that we could. However, I found out early in life that not all older people had wisdom.
Today I see a desire with the coming together of the young and fathers for the glory of God and for the extension of the Kingdom of God. However, to bring about this unity of relationship there are several things that we need to keep in mind because misunderstanding can so easily come in and instead of the linking together we may be driven further apart.
We must seek to understand more than to be understood. This is important for us ‘fathers’ especially with the youth of today, because we live in a technological age and a lot of communication is being done through texting, e-mails, Facebook, messenger, etc. This type of communication is through ‘words’ only. It is stated that most of our communication is through body language: our gestures, facial expressions and our tone of voice, and last on the list are the words that we speak.
To really understand each other one of the first things that we must do is suspend judgment. So often we are quick to judge someone by what they said because of our misunderstanding of it at the time, or because what we see or hear does not match up with our thinking. Suspending judgment gives us the ability to really focus on what the other person is saying, and what he actually means. Understanding one another does not mean that we automatically agree, but by understanding what the person is saying that he believes gives the opportunity to bring in biblical values.
We all have strong opinions and will have a natural human response to shout over one another to get across our point. We must allow love to be the motivation and then through our dialogue we will come to know one another better and form the relationship necessary to accomplish all that the Lord wants. I would think that one of the greatest examples of love is to be able to understand the other person.
HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND MUST BECOME OUR MANTRA FOR THIS PARTNERSHIP FOR ZEAL (young) AND WISDOM (old) TO COME TOGETHER.
By understanding the other person and finding ourselves not in total agreement gives us the opportunity to fine tune our own thinking. Do we have all truth? NO! Do we have all wisdom? NO! Are there things that we can learn? YES! When we realize this it gives us the opportunity to examine more carefully what the other person is saying and finding that certain things make sense. And when added to what we have already said it can make for a better understanding of our own thinking.
What do I mean by this? I bring forth my reasoning on a particular subject (whatever that might be) and the other person brings out things that oppose my reasoning. However, when I understand what the other person is saying often I can find elements of truth in what he/she is saying. When taken and added to my own thought it tends to bring it into better focus.
One other aspect that I would like to add to this is ‘how we communicate.’ We need to keep in mind that we are mainly using words and the other essential parts of communication are left out such as facial expression, body language, etc.
When we are expressing our opinions, others reading it then express theirs and soon we find that the misunderstandings that cause disagreements come full steam ahead. I have found very few writers who have the ability through words to express the body language necessary to be fully understood. This is the reason why it is better, if possible, to speak face to face about important matters.
However, if it is impossible to speak face to face then it is of the utmost importance to take the time to understand the other person by asking the person to clarify words, statements, expressions and phrases that may communicate the wrong thing to you. This takes time, but we can endeavor to become better communicators and have the ability to understand for the glory of God.
MY GOAL IS TO BECOME A BETTER COMMUNICATOR!