Loving the Next Generation: Acceptance Is Key

If I want to better relate to the next generation, I need to accept them.

Maybe some of you are thinking, “But, Jeremy, they are weird. Have you heard the music they're listening to? It’s just noise to me. They’re just so weird. They have weird tastes. They're just weird.”

And you know, I was thinking about this. I must be pretty weird in God's eyes. Now, I don't think God's up there saying, “Yeah, you're weird.” But comparatively, I must be pretty weird. Yet God accepts me the way I am for who I am. And that's grace.

Do we have grace for our younger generations? As difficult as it might be, God calls us to that, to accept.

Romans 15:7 says, “Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you to the glory of God.” Now, the word for welcome here means to take as a companion or associate. Have you taken someone from the next generation as an associate? It means to receive kindly or hospitably. Are you treating those in the next generation with hospitality? Now get this: To admit to one's society and friendship, to treat with kindness.

One theologian put it this way as he was commenting on this verse. He says, “As God or Christ has taken every member of the church into fellowship with himself, so incorporate each other into your Christian circle with no inner reservations.” Wow. How are we doing with this? To take each other in with no reservations? This is a huge calling for everyone. Not just the next generation, but for everyone.

Some parents, some adults, you know, they reject kids when they mess up, when they don't look like the way we want them to look. If they don't behave the way we want them to behave, or when they don't meet our standards, we reject them. We push them aside and we say, “Yeah, you go sit in the corner.” Children are to be seen and not heard. And so we push, we shove them aside.

But the Bible says that children are a gift from God. That God custom makes our children. He knits them in the mother's womb. And just as God our Father accepts us and all our weirdness, he calls us to accept those in the next generation and each other, really, as his gift to us.

Now, I will say our job is not to make them like we are, right? We are to affirm their uniqueness. But they don't have to like what I like. If they want to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers instead of the Cleveland Browns - I just threw up a little bit in my mouth there - I have to accept that.

I accept them. But I want to say this so we're just on the same page. We accept who they are, but we cannot and must not approve of immoral behavior or anything they do that goes against God's will. We've got to be careful on that, right? So let's accept who they are, but let's be careful.