I’ve been thinking about the different experiences people have in life. There are people younger than I am that have more life experience than I do simply because of the different way life happened to us. There are people older than I am who don’t know some of the things I do simply because they haven’t needed to know, or haven’t come across the knowledge yet. This doesn’t make any one of us superior or inferior to the other, it just means our life experiences have been different.
Taking into account the different life experiences of others when interacting with them is important. Not everyone knows what you know. You don’t know everything other people know.
It can be easy to look down on someone for not knowing what to do, and it can be easy to feel stupid when you’re the one who doesn’t know what to do. But realize that you shouldn’t look down on people and that you’re not stupid. Sometimes you’re the adult helping a child realize they don’t have to cry over their dropped ice cream, and sometimes you’re the child who has just had the worst experience of their life to this point.
Different people have had different life experiences than you. Sometimes you’re the one with more experience, sometimes they are. Sometimes you’re each more experienced at something the other is not. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter who is older. Meet each other where you’re at, and you’ll more likely be able to share your experiences and make each other better.
Related:
Where Should We Meet?
Different Experience, Same Grace