6 Ways to Honor the Generation Before You (And Why It Matters)

We live in a culture that moves fast. We prize efficiency, productivity, and progress. And somewhere in all that speed, we've lost something essential: the ability to honor the people who made it all possible. The generation before us, our senior adults, our parents, grandparents, and church elders, carry wisdom we desperately need. But too often, our pace keeps us from sitting still long enough to receive it.

Scripture is clear that honoring the elderly is not optional. It is a direct reflection of our faith. Job 12:12 tells us, "Wisdom is found in the aged." And the command to honor your father and mother comes with a promise attached: "that your days may be long in the land that God gives you." So what does it actually look like to value the generation that came before us? Here are six practical ways.

Slow Down

Much of the difficulty this generation has in honoring senior adults comes down to pace. As people age, they shift their rhythm of life. Retirement, health, and the natural season of life lead them to slow down. But our culture worships hurry, and hurry is the enemy of relationship. Our speed prevents us from relating to those who have shifted their pace.

If you want to honor a senior adult, sit still long enough to have a real conversation. Be fully present. Leave your phone off or in the car. You cannot meaningfully connect with someone when you are rushing past them. Slowing down is not a waste of time. It is an act of love.

Esteem Them

Esteem is a biblical word tied directly to the idea of honor. Scripture tells us to give honor to whom honor is due, and our senior adults are due a great deal of it. We are here because of them. The facilities we worship in, the ministries we benefit from, the technology we use for the gospel, all of it exists because they were faithful when they were younger.

Their obedience became our blessing. When you honor your elders, it is an actual representation of your faith in God. He says, "If you love Me, you will do what I say," and He speaks significantly about how the elderly are a crown of glory, worthy of esteem and honor. As one author put it, "The redeemed are to cherish their wisdom, listen to their advice, and appreciate their labor. Biblical wisdom values and honors and esteems the elderly."

Nurture Them as Family

This one may feel more difficult depending on your family dynamics. But if you examine Titus and 1 Timothy 5, Scripture speaks about treating elderly men as fathers and elderly women as mothers. This is a Kingdom mentality. There is a dynamic within the family of God that draws us together, and it means treating one another as family in Christ, because that is who we really are.

Even when earthly family relationships are complicated or painful, the church is designed to function as a spiritual family. Senior adults in the faith are not strangers. They are mothers and fathers in the Lord, and they deserve to be treated that way.

Incline Your Ear

This word, incline, appears throughout the Psalms. David used it often. But the idea is simple: listen. Listen to senior adults. As you listen, seek to understand. There is so much wisdom stored in their stories and their years, more than you or I could ever dream to know.

As you slow down and honor them, make sure your ear is tuned in. Don't just hear their words. Listen for the wisdom underneath the words. They have lived long lives, carried unbelievable burdens, and given sacrificially so that you could hear the message and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their wisdom is critical. If our future and vision are going to be realized, one of the first things we can do is listen and incline our ear to our senior adults.

Open Your Heart

Sometimes, whether because of pain or irritability or just the speed of life, we shut ourselves off from the people who have the most to teach us. But our hearts could be so powerfully affected if we would simply open ourselves up to their wisdom. This goes beyond listening to what they know. It means staying genuinely curious about how they know what they know.

Where have they been? What have they lived through? What got them through it? If you come to the table genuinely curious the next time you sit across from a senior adult and begin to ask real questions and truly listen, God will use what they say to affect your heart in a positive way. But it may require some posture changes. It may require setting aside assumptions or frustrations and choosing to be open.

Respect Their Life and Legacy

This final point carries weight because it confronts something uncomfortable in our generation. We live in a culture that blames much of its problems on the people who came before. More now than ever, we point to our parents, our upbringing, and those who raised us as the reason things are not working out.

That is not to diminish anyone's experience of genuine trauma. But a godly person takes responsibility for his or her own life. He or she understands that they were created by God and for God. Yes, some of us were raised in better situations than others. Some had grandparents who walked alongside them every step of the way. Others did not.

My grandfather died when my father was 16. I never really knew him. I had a step grandfather who lived a little ways from us and would play chess with me when we visited, but I did not have a real relationship with him. My other grandpa lived in Oklahoma, which at 55 miles an hour was a 14 hour drive. We saw him maybe once a year. There was no investment in my life. No FaceTime, no email, no Zoom calls. I had to live with the fact that he simply was not anywhere near me.

But God placed other senior adults in my life who helped shape me. One of my parents' friends, a woman named Miriam, loved me with all of her heart. I do not know why. She met me when I was three years old and she was in her 60s, and she just took to me and told me that one day I would be a preacher. I told her I never would. I am standing here today because she spoke truth into my life.

We all come from different backgrounds. And when you are frustrated that someone who has gone before you does not seem worthy of respect, remember that Scripture says, "Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that God gives you." He does not say "if they were worthy of it." He says honor them. There is something positional about the roles of parent, grandparent, and great grandparent. Those positions are worthy of honor and respect, even when the person does not act honorably.

So let's stop blaming and start honoring. Let's start esteeming. Let's start respecting. Let's start nurturing. Let's start listening. Let's slow down and choose to love the generation that has gone before us.