1 Timothy 5:1-2. "Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as you would a father; treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, all in purity."

Paul is writing to Timothy with his role as a leader of the new Church in mind, but Paul's words here apply to all of us. In this era of drastic change, I often get frustrated with people who are just not on the same page as I am. I see the world falling deeper into sin, and the warning signs of chastisements, as well as the chastisements themselves, everywhere. But so many are still going along like nothing is wrong, or, worse yet, seeing something is wrong and allowing themselves to be convinced that the people fighting the evil are actually the source of the problem. Sometimes I want to shake people out of their stupor so they will wake up and join the fight!

I find many older people are still trying to see the world as the world in which they grew up. They trusted the government to have their best interests at heart, and the media to generally want to report the truth. I don't know how true those things were then, although it does seem they were a bit more true then than now. The world the elderly knew has changed so drastically and insidiously that it is now on fire, both figuratively and literally, but many of them still do not see it. Paul's words to Timothy strike my heart today to not lose patience with the older men and women in my life. Their confusion and wanting to cling to a more comfortable past is understandable. Me getting frustrated or upset with them will not help the situation, but me being calm and loving towards them, as I would be to a parent, might.

The younger people who have been led astray are also very frustrating and easier, for me at least, to get angry with. But Paul tells me to treat them like siblings. I am, again, to love them and try to help them when I can, even if I don't agree with them, and even if I see them as part of the problem. I have to remember our battle is with principalities and powers, and not with people.

God wants to save His people, every last one of them, and if I am to be of any help to Him at all, I have to love them and treat them all as I would members of my own family.