Our culture has trained us to be self-reliant. This becomes painfully obvious when other people begin to get involved in our personal lives; then we bristle. However, I was recently encouraged by several young men and women who said that they want to find some older men and women who would be willing to give them insight into marriage, work, and leadership issues.
This should encourage us to understand that the church is a family and that families teach each other. In Titus 2:1-6, Paul encourages us to do that: “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.”
Early on in my Christian life, I was taught that each of us should have a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy. In other words, each of us should have a person in our life, like Paul, who teaches us how to become a Christian and how to live as a Christian. Each of us should also have a person, like Barnabas, who encourages us to live according to sound doctrine, to hold us accountable. Each of us should also have a Timothy, someone whom we can teach and encourage.
Whether you are young or old, take the time to get to know your family. Find someone who can teach you what you need to know. Find someone who can encourage you. Then find someone whom you can teach and encourage so that this family can continue to connect people to God and other people, to grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus, and to serve like Jesus.