A friend and I were talking about our house-groups, those meetings when church members get together in smaller numbers.  In a large church home groups are a way of getting to know people better.  My friend and her husband are the oldest members of their house group.

The topic in her last group meeting had been about relationships, especially strains between married couples.  She told how she and her husband described some of the difficulties they’d experienced in their long marriage, and how they’d managed to work them out.

She said, ‘We were surprised when the young people thanked us for sharing these things with them.  They said it had been really helpful, and that they’d been blessed.’

There’s a lovely article on the internet written by a young man, about how the younger need the older.  They need their reassurance as well as their guidance.  http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/older-men-younger-men-need-you

The Scriptures in Titus and Timothy are about older men and older women helping the younger.  It makes sense, because seniors have life experiences to draw from. And I wondered how this passing on of life wisdom  works in our churches today, when it’s mostly pastors or other church leaders that are ‘flagged’ as the ones to take one’s problems to.

How does this work in your church?

 

 

Louise Morse

Louise Morse MA (CBT) is media and external relations manager for the Pilgrims’ Friend Society. She is a writer and speaker, and author of books on issues of old age, including dementia, published by Lion Monarch and SPCK. She is a cognitive behavioural therapist, and her Masters’ dissertation examined the effects of caring for a loved one with dementia on close relatives.

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