“The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they know everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress.”Not my words – just wondering how many times you have heard older generations share similar thoughts about “the youth of today”? We can be all too ready to label and criticize others’ behaviour in order to feel better about ourselves.
What many of us fail to consider when we are thinking like this is that for those of us who are a little bit older; we aren’t facing the same challenges as young people now, the world has turned a few more times and with that things change. The demands on all of us are different today to that of previous generations. And change is one of the few things we can be sure of (a bit like death and taxes).
Lets embrace the changes (as it’s no good fighting them – you run the risk of being left behind) and support and love the young people in our lives as they, like us, find their own ways of meeting the challenges life brings.
So, whose words were those above? It’s an extract from a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in A.D 1274!
