Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode Four: Interacting With All Ages
37 Plays6 months ago
Listen as we discuss the importance of being connecting with older and younger people!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Bloomwild Girls Podcast
00:00:01
Bloom Wild Girls
Welcome to the Bloomwild Girls podcast. This is a podcast for teen and tween girls by teen and tween girls to help you in the current seasons of life that you're experiencing and to help you think about those seasons biblically.
00:00:15
Bloom Wild Girls
And we are here today to discuss a new topic. I am here
Importance of Age Diversity
00:00:20
Bloom Wild Girls
with Addison and Ellery to talk with you about interacting with various ages. that maybe seems like a confusing or unique topic, but it's something that we think about a lot in our family, something that's important to us, and we think can be really beneficial to anyone in life, really, whether you're an adult or a kid or a teenager.
00:00:44
Bloom Wild Girls
So we're going talk about that. So the first question that we're going to be discussing is why is it important in your life to interact with people of different ages? This is people older than you or younger than you, all different ages. So I'm going to ask um each of the girls to share what they think. And then I'm going to add in maybe some thoughts that I have as well.
00:01:05
Bloom Wild Girls
So we're actually going to start with Ellery. Ellery, why do you think that it would be important to have relationships or connections with people of different ages? Well, a lot of
Biblical Perspective on Age Diversity
00:01:16
Bloom Wild Girls
times it can help you. Like if someone's older, you can learn from them. If someone's younger, you can teach them.
00:01:24
Bloom Wild Girls
And so that is a thing that is good about it. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Adi, what would you add to that? Well, you could kind of learn how to, like, learn to interact with them. you aren't going to, like, be your only your age group your whole life.
00:01:41
Bloom Wild Girls
You're going to and have to interact with other ages. Like, when you're older, if you get married and have kids, you're going to have to interact with younger kids. And then your parents are older, so obviously interact with older people.
00:01:52
Bloom Wild Girls
And just learning to do that. Like, lots of times we have people who are older over, and we can still interact with them because we're just used to hanging around people who aren't our ages. I think that's a great reason. Yeah. The real world is full of people in all different stages of life.
00:02:08
Bloom Wild Girls
So it's good to know how to interact with all of them. um And also all people, whatever stage they're at, have value and they matter and they matter to God. So we should treat them as if they have value versus treating younger kids as maybe they're not cool enough to hang out with us or older people as if they're just annoying and don't understand us or those sorts of things. So we're trying to avoid those pitfalls.
00:02:31
Bloom Wild Girls
And instead, see everyone as valuable and especially as Christians, see everybody as our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what age they are. So things that I would
Mentorship and Learning Across Generations
00:02:41
Bloom Wild Girls
add is I definitely think when you were thinking about people older than us, they can sometimes be a mentor, someone who can give us advice.
00:02:48
Bloom Wild Girls
They might have some more life experience than us. um They might be a good example. for us as well. But then also on the flip side, if we hang out with people that are younger than us, we might be able to bless them or be an example or help them or um act in selfish ways towards them in order to to help them We also get to to hear different perspectives, see things through different eyes, and we can learn patience and love, I think, when we interact with people different than us.
00:03:16
Bloom Wild Girls
Were you going to have another thought? Yes. For a while, my mom was mentoring this lady, actually. She was like around in her early 20s, and her name was Olivia Reeves. Now she's Olivia Kirkland, but my mom mentored her for a while. And so she was interacting with a younger age and then we interacted with her.
00:03:33
Bloom Wild Girls
And so we were interacting with someone older than us and she was used to interacting with all ages and she loves kids. So it was really fun hanging out with her. Yeah, that's a beautiful example. Yeah, I was her mentor. And um the cool thing about that was I was able to talk with her, um talk about things she was wondering about, help her with things. But I also would sometimes ask her questions um because she had a bunch of sisters and i I never had sisters, but I'm raising all these daughters. So I would sometimes ask her questions about her experiences and that was helpful for me. And then, yes, she was um a mentor to my daughters as well and spent time with them. And she was someone who could
00:04:11
Bloom Wild Girls
talk to all ages and treat them all the same. And that was a good quality she had. Okay. So another thing we're going to talk about, we kind of talked about the why it can be good for us. And there's many reasons why, and some of them might come up as we go along.
00:04:28
Bloom Wild Girls
um But let's think about examples in the Bible of this, because that's always one where we want to be looking for why we do what we do and what things matter. We look to the Bible Um, so let's start with Addy this time. do you have some examples from the Bible? Yes.
00:04:41
Bloom Wild Girls
Okay. Okay. So when Jesus was around 12 years old, he went into the temple and just started talking to all like the priests and stuff. And they were much older than him. Uh huh. And he was just like sharing his wisdom and he didn't really care like about how old they were and being like shy or acting weird and awkward around them.
00:04:59
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. He just like started telling them about God. He didn't only go talk to other 12 olds. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great example. um Did you have another example? Yes. Okay. Esther was really young too.
00:05:12
Bloom Wild Girls
And then I have a verse. Okay. It says, it's 1 Timothy 4.12. And it says, do not let anyone look down on you because you're young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.
00:05:27
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. And I think that one's awesome when you consider the fact that you might think you're young, and you don't have much to offer, but you're further along than some people for sure. And there are definitely people who are looking to you, um and you can be an example to them. And also, yeah, you can bless people that are older than you as well.
00:05:43
Bloom Wild Girls
um i I thought of some examples. Ellery, do you have any examples from the Bible of things you can think of that would show us why it would be beneficial to have different ages together and connecting with different ages?
00:05:56
Bloom Wild Girls
I'm not sure' not sure. Maybe something will come to you as I as i share some. So what I was thinking was about was just in general in the Bible when Jesus is teaching, there's many different people present, including kids.
00:06:08
Bloom Wild Girls
Even when some of the disciples are teaching, there's children present. Do you guys remember the story of the boy who falls out of the window yeah and dies? Yeah. Well, he gets revived. he gets brought back life. But there were lots of ages interacting together. We can see that. um It was beneficial.
00:06:23
Bloom Wild Girls
A lot of things happened in family life as well in scripture. So whole families, you hear about whole families getting saved and whole families getting baptized. And I think that shows that there was some togetherness. They were talking about spiritual things together.
00:06:36
Bloom Wild Girls
Caiaphas' family and the Bible. Uh-huh. Yep. um Also, I thought of Naaman's servant, who was a young girl, and how she saw a problem and she was able to give him some advice or wisdom.
00:06:48
Bloom Wild Girls
And um the disciples also mentioned times when older women helped them or encouraged them. um And so I think that's really neat that we can look to scripture to see these different examples. Yeah.
00:07:01
Bloom Wild Girls
And also the
Challenges of Age Segregation
00:07:02
Bloom Wild Girls
Bible also reminds us how we're all kind of the same in Christ. We have this common bond. And so when we have a common bond like that, we don't need to just look to the things that separate us like our age.
00:07:13
Bloom Wild Girls
um And so I think that's a good reminder as well. Okay, Adi? I just thought of another family that got saved together. Remember when Paul and Silas are in the dungeon, like in the jail, and they're singing?
00:07:26
Bloom Wild Girls
And then when the jail breaks down because of the angel, I think? Yes. Then the person comes in. He's like about to kind of commit suicide because he's like, oh, I'm going to be like, something going to happen to because my boss is going to be mad. And then Paul and Silas kind tell him about God, and then he becomes a believer and says all his family.
00:07:44
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. And so we think that's great to that the disciples were able to go and witness not just to him, but then like the word goes to his whole family um because we don't want just one age group of people to be saved, right?
00:07:56
Bloom Wild Girls
People who are older who might not be Christians, they they can get saved. People who are in the middle of their lives can get saved. Children can get saved. It's not, there's not one age that matters more or that's and the perfect age for that. So that's a good reminder as well.
00:08:11
Bloom Wild Girls
Okay, so i had a few other examples and where scripture tells us that it's actually really important that we make connections with people of different ages. So Titus 2 is a commonly referred to one. And this one talks about older men teaching younger men and older women being an example and teaching what is good to younger women. So that's a pretty specific one.
00:08:32
Bloom Wild Girls
and And the Bible tells us that we should do that. We should be doing that. And now it doesn't say, you know, only 80 year old women should teach 30 year old women or anything like that. It's not specific. It just says older and younger.
00:08:46
Bloom Wild Girls
um it does reference with the women that they are maybe married and they're teaching younger married women how to live their lives. And, um but we can apply it to other things as well.
00:08:59
Bloom Wild Girls
Okay. Proverbs 27, 17 is
Practical Ways to Engage Across Ages
00:09:01
Bloom Wild Girls
another one. And it talks about ironing, iron sharpens iron. as one man sharpens another, meaning when we're interacting with one another, we can encourage each other, spur each other onto love and good deeds, help each other to be better or, you know, like a sharper knife is a better knife. It works better and it's more effective. So we want to be sharpened.
00:09:22
Bloom Wild Girls
um Okay. And then another one I had was Psalm 145.4. This one's really cool. I think you guys tell me if you have any thoughts on this one. It says one generation shall commend your works to another generation.
00:09:34
Bloom Wild Girls
You shall declare your mighty acts. What do you guys think about when you hear scripture? Basically that you tell your children about everything you know so that they can tell it to their children. They can tell to their children.
00:09:47
Bloom Wild Girls
And it goes passed on and on and yeah on. And when you think about a generation, however many years that is, that there's many generations alive at one time. So this is kind of a good reminder that each generation can have something different to teach, that each generation has experienced many different things that have been going on in the world, many different things in their lives. So they might be able to teach a different generation things to help them in their walk with the Lord.
00:10:13
Bloom Wild Girls
um First Timothy 5.1 is another one. It says to encourage older men as fathers, younger as brothers, to encourage older women as mothers and younger as sisters, which kind of shows that we should be encouraging older and younger there's that across all ages again okay any other um thoughts on that i have another question to ask you girls oh Did you want to read that whole verse? Yes. Okay, Adi's going to read the Titus 2 verse. i think it's, this is the section about women. Okay. It's Titus 2, 1 through 5. And it says, Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good so that they may encourage the young woman to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
00:11:07
Bloom Wild Girls
Mm-hmm. Okay, good. So we're going to now move into why might it be a bad thing if you're only interacting with people your same age. And then we're going to talk about some practical ways of how to do this.
00:11:18
Bloom Wild Girls
Because in our society today, things are pretty age segregated. So if you are in a public or even a private school or even maybe a charter school, typically you're separated by grade, which means you're going to be with kids your own age for most of the day.
00:11:33
Bloom Wild Girls
And then we've got Sunday school, youth group sort of things, maybe even sports. um And it's totally great to have friends that are in your same life stage, having similar experiences as you. That's kind of why we're doing this podcast to to help people in a certain age group.
00:11:50
Bloom Wild Girls
And that's fine. That's really good. um But we want to maybe go past that because we think it's really beneficial to not stay only in those groups or to have that group be your main source of advice or wisdom.
00:12:04
Bloom Wild Girls
So what could be some problems with only, if you're only interacting with people your own age? Can you guys think of any? Your mind might just only think along the lines of a certain age and Then like if something came up where you had to interact with somebody younger or older, you might not know what to do. And it might be kind of weird.
00:12:21
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah, that's true. If you weren't good at it, you weren't good at practicing it, then you could end up in a situation. Maybe you're applying for a job. Maybe um you just end up somewhere where someone starts talking to you and you feel really uncomfortable and you
Engaging with Elders and Mentors
00:12:34
Bloom Wild Girls
don't feel prepared or.
00:12:35
Bloom Wild Girls
maybe it's with younger people and you don't know how to take care of them or why is this kid crying? i don't know what to do and things like that. So if you're, if you're only focused on one age, yeah, you might not be prepared to either help other people or even interact with other people. That's a good point. Can you think of any negative things, Ellery, that can come from spending time with only one age group?
00:12:56
Bloom Wild Girls
Um, I think pretty much the same as Addy that it like kind of, All you're thinking about is that age and like all the people the same exact age.
00:13:08
Bloom Wild Girls
So they all think like kind of similar levels. And it's better to have older people who can tell you um things that are like more wisdom not actually just like saying like yeah things to other kids family yeah I totally agree yeah while it's fun to be around people our own age and it's fun to have similarities if you stayed there there's a lot you wouldn't learn or know or experience um you would only ya be keeping it kind of at one level so that could be
00:13:45
Bloom Wild Girls
That might not be very beneficial to you. Do you have another idea? I'm really good at interacting with all ages, but then sometimes there are times when I feel awkward or like I don't know what to do.
00:13:56
Bloom Wild Girls
And so I might still need practice with that. Of course. Yes. Yeah. You probably haven't interacted with every single age group and not some as much as others maybe. So for example, all of you girls were born in less than seven years. So we don't have babies around anymore.
00:14:13
Bloom Wild Girls
and So that might be something that you're not as familiar with because we don't have babies or little toddlers right now. However, you've been working as a mother's helper, which we'll get to this in a second, that that's a great way to kind of learn that and learn how to have compassion and understanding and even enjoy little children instead of thinking of them as a nuisance. So that could be one of the things I was going to say is bad is you might start to view people in different age categories in a negative light.
00:14:42
Bloom Wild Girls
like, oh, younger kids are annoying or older people are boring or things like that if you aren't accustomed to spending time with them. I also think that sometimes, and this is not particular just to teens or tweens, but all people, I've noticed, if they are mostly interacting people in the same age or stage of life as them and they have a problem, a lot of times people who are the same as as them have experienced similar problems. So they can offer a lot of sympathy. Oh yeah, I know what you, I know how you feel, or I know what you mean, or I totally agree with you.
00:15:16
Bloom Wild Girls
And sometimes we can stay in that sympathy. And instead of someone giving us wisdom, or maybe even we need to hear some truth, like, Hey, I understand that that's a struggle for you, but that you really should be thinking about it differently.
00:15:28
Bloom Wild Girls
or here's what the Bible says about that. It can be really tempting to just like encourage each other and kind of commiserate with each other. Like, Oh yeah, i know that's so horrible oh yeah parents are so annoying or yeah my parents do versus having a voice of reason who's maybe gone a little further than you that's saying hey I know I remember when my parents had rules for me and it was hard but here's what I've learned you know as I've gotten older and let me give you a little wisdom as well as understanding so if that can be something good and because when you're with people of similar age you often have similar temptations
00:16:00
Bloom Wild Girls
And similar struggles. So it's just good to mix it. That's one of the reasons it's good to mix it up. Okay, so we're going to jump into talking about how you can do this, ways to do this. We sort of started to do that. um One thing that we do, I mean, we obviously homeschool, so there's a lot of interaction there. And some of the benefits we've seen is younger children using a higher level of vocabulary.
00:16:22
Bloom Wild Girls
or um maybe challenging themselves to try to learn something that they wouldn't normally try to do because they see someone older doing it. And then I would say for the older siblings, you might have to be patient with your younger siblings, or maybe you have to listen to a story that's not your favorite because it's the it's a little kid's story, but they they deserve to listen to it as well. um So it kind of teaches you this patient attitude, thinking about the needs of others. um I would say we also, we have,
00:16:52
Bloom Wild Girls
some cousins, you guys have some cousins who I think are really good with young children. Have you noticed that about your cousins? yeah They're all boys and they have, um, they have some younger cousins as well. And they've been helping with younger kids and they always, um, interact with little kids really well. They like look them in the eye and they smile at them. They kiss them. They don't, they play with them. And I think it's really cool that they have that ability. They're not like all That's annoying. I don't want to help with that kid. they They totally just jump in and do it. It's totally normal for them. They're very
Learning from Older Generations
00:17:25
Bloom Wild Girls
good at it um because they've been around them a lot.
00:17:27
Bloom Wild Girls
They've been been serving in that way. Okay. So what are some other examples? We have our nature group where we interact with all ages and you often play games all together. You have to come up with things everybody enjoys.
00:17:41
Bloom Wild Girls
i think that's really cool. um And again, you'll see like a big kid picking up a little kid or things like that. um Okay. So I want you guys to share any other ideas you have. How can you interact with different ages? What are some ways or what are some possible opportunities that might be out there?
00:17:57
Bloom Wild Girls
Well, you could just have a bunch of people you know have lots of kids come over and just hang out. So like whole family versus just your friend. whole family. And so like just your friend. Okay. That's a great idea. Like over dinner and then interact with the whole family.
00:18:10
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. Yeah. Like for this Halloween, we're having people coming over to our house all together to hang out stuff trick-or-treating. And there's going lots of different ages. So we'll have some opportunities to interact with lots of yeah different ages and stuff. And the parents are included too. Yes.
00:18:25
Bloom Wild Girls
I would say that you guys kind of talk with um my friends ah a lot as well, right? Yeah. It's not like the parents are completely separated. You've talked with um some of my mom friends and interacted with them and they've talked to you. And yeah, um I think that that's a really cool thing. i like that you mentioned bringing over whole families, not that we can't also have a friend over, but bringing over whole families is a cool way to learn to interact. That's actually why I don't prefer separate kid tables at holidays.
00:18:56
Bloom Wild Girls
I actually love intermixing it. i think it's really neat um for the kids to be able to, yeah, hear what the adults are talking about. Always do it because tables aren't big enough. Yeah, it's not always possible. And a kid table is fun. I enjoy the kid table as well. But um I think there can be benefits to both. So, you know, holidays obviously might be different. It's harder. But just when you have families over, um just intermixing everyone at the tables, sometimes a really fun thing to do.
00:19:21
Bloom Wild Girls
So that's something to do. Try that maybe at some of your events that you do. Try intermixing everyone. Okay. What about like grandparents? Is there anything you could do with grandparents? Totally. Such as?
00:19:34
Bloom Wild Girls
All sorts of things. have some ideas. Just like spending time with them. Like when we go to grandma camp. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Going and spending maybe intentional time with the grandparent. Addie? um Well, maybe you could do something that the grandparent thinks is fun.
00:19:46
Bloom Wild Girls
Like one of yes one of my grandpas loves golf. And so when we hang out with them, sometimes we'll be golfing. And even if I don't enjoy it as much as he does, I will still participate. And then I find out it's like actually really fun.
00:19:59
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah, like do for just getting to know them. As their own person, not just what they can do for you kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's really cool. And I think that that your interactions with your grandparents have been really helpful because we have a few other things we're involved in where the people are probably like grandparent age and that are that you're working with.
00:20:19
Bloom Wild Girls
And I've noticed how natural it is for you to just talk with them, interact with them. um Yes. Yeah. Also, sometimes I see that our grandparents will interact with us because sometimes he'll go to like a mini golfing spot instead for the day with us.
00:20:32
Bloom Wild Girls
So that we don't have to always do like the big golfing. Yeah. I think it can be valuable to see things through the eyes of people in different stages. Totally. um You've also also written letters to grandparents before.
00:20:45
Bloom Wild Girls
um i think something else you could do is just be intentional. Maybe ask your grandparents some questions. Ask them what life was like. I know you guys love stories from your grandmas. um ask stories about what their life was like or even ask them for advice what do you think about this just be willing to hear their thoughts and opinions okay um we've also gone we went once and we served at like a home for elderly yeah uh-huh didn't we like sing hymns for the christmas we did and then we kind of chatted with some of them some poems i'd written yeah it was so cool they told us about all the like This one lady from was from Germany and she told us what they used to do on Christmas.
00:21:19
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. And that was Christmas time. That was such a neat thing to be able to hear about her life in Germany. um We actually went with our nature group and with some younger kids and stuff. Exactly. And together. The cool thing is it blessed it probably blessed both parties. We learned things.
Final Thoughts on Age Interaction
00:21:34
Bloom Wild Girls
Um, we were able to get some wisdom and and ideas and then they had the joy of being around younger people as well. And so that was cool. Okay. What about women? Like just older women, what are some ways you could interact?
00:21:48
Bloom Wild Girls
We talked about maybe actually talking to your mom's friends and having relationships with them. Um, what about like mentorship? Um,
00:21:59
Bloom Wild Girls
You talked about Olivia, how i was yeah mentor. do you think at some point it might be good to have someone who's a mentor, whether they're maybe a little bit older than you, like an older teen that you know and trust or a college age girl or maybe a married woman? Yeah. or I feel like mom is pretty good of a mentor, but I would love to have a mentor. Definitely. attend Yeah, definitely. You should see your parents as mentors. I think that's really great. If you are blessed with parents who are, and you know, also Christians and willing to talk with you about that stuff. That's great.
00:22:29
Bloom Wild Girls
um actually our church does ah program where once you are in high school, you are assigned a mentor. Yeah, which is really cool. I think that's really cool because they want, I think it's a good idea to start at a younger age learning to seek advice or to seek people who are um going to give you godly wisdom so that wherever you go, we move away from home or something like that. You have this idea of in your mind of connecting with other people who might be a little more mature or just further down the road than you who are willing to encourage you. Okay.
00:22:59
Bloom Wild Girls
What about, um, what other ideas might you guys have? Um, with interacting with people? Yeah, whether it's people that are older than you or younger. Or what about ah people younger than you? Well, I'm pen pals with lots and lots of people. Okay.
00:23:13
Bloom Wild Girls
I'm actually pen pals with Olivia, the girl mom mentored. I'm pen pals with my grandparents. Yeah. Um, actually I'm not, I'm pen pals with a few girls who are a few years older than me, like 15 14.
00:23:24
Bloom Wild Girls
go fourteen Yeah. And then I'm also pen pals with younger people who are like 11 or... or eight or like younger than me i think i'm of one who's my age i don't really have i have like about the number of people who i'm friends with who are my age are like three the majority is not my age Okay, so I feel like a piece of advice from that is don't limit yourself.
00:23:50
Bloom Wild Girls
Don't think that maybe you can only be friends with people your exact age. Consider other people. Whether they're a couple years younger or a couple years older, they might still end up being a really great friend or someone that um you can connect with. Or whether you're encouraging them, they're encouraging you. Or you just have a lot in common so that you're friends. It doesn't have to be someone your exact age. That's good advice.
00:24:12
Bloom Wild Girls
Yes. Actually, i'm so I'm 15 and my best friend is 11. Yeah, there you go. So it doesn't, the age doesn't necessarily matter. So it's it's important to remember that. That again comes with seeing people as valuable for who they are, not kind of saying, oh well, because you're this person.
00:24:27
Bloom Wild Girls
we can't, you know, have a good relationship or something like that. yeah um It makes me think of Anne of Green Gables because she's always finding these bosom friends, but they're not, they're all different ages. and They're always all different ages.
00:24:38
Bloom Wild Girls
And um each relationship is unique that she has. Okay. What about when you're trying to look for people younger than you? What are ways you could do that to to practice interacting with people younger than you? What are some things you can do? Can you think of something else?
00:24:51
Bloom Wild Girls
Well, I'm thinking of something that not all people could do, but that I did. I was invited to a book club at a friend's house, and almost all the people who were invited besides me were and 10-year-old girls.
00:25:07
Bloom Wild Girls
And I actually got to be pretty good friends with one of the 9- or 10-year-old girls. I don't remember exactly how old she eyes was. Because the age didn't matter. Yeah.
00:25:19
Bloom Wild Girls
But... um I think that's great. So, well, maybe what you're an example you're kind of giving is don't just rule something out. So Oh, I don't want to to that. Everyone's younger than me. Assuming that you wouldn't enjoy yourself.
00:25:30
Bloom Wild Girls
I love. Yeah. And that's, I think again, because you're not expecting it to be just exactly what you like, just exactly your preferences are just exactly geared towards. you know, what 11 year olds want. Plus all people are different anyway.
00:25:43
Bloom Wild Girls
So to say that 11 or 12 year olds only like one thing is kind of narrow minded, I guess. Okay. el Addie. Well, when they got home from that and they were telling me about it, I thought it sounded fun, even though yeah mostly with like younger ages. And I bet you would have had fun as well.
00:25:57
Bloom Wild Girls
Okay. So obviously siblings siblings are an obvious one. Maybe thinking about your siblings like instead of, oh, they're just here and they're younger than me and they're annoying, which sometimes they might be annoying because you are more mature.
00:26:09
Bloom Wild Girls
And the funny thing is you probably did the same things that they're doing when you were their age. But instead, like trying to interact with them. What would you like to play? Do you want me to read you a book? You may come with me. You can watch me getting ready for this event that you're too young to go to.
00:26:23
Bloom Wild Girls
Things like that, like to um keep that relationship strong. and Maybe even your friends, siblings. So we have friends who have. kids younger than our youngest child. So we have friends who have babies and friends who have toddlers. So maybe even being willing to interact with them when we're hanging out.
00:26:39
Bloom Wild Girls
If you see they fall down and get hurt or they need something or just saying, I'm going to include them too. I'm not going to just go off with the kid my age. I'm going to see how we can all interact together. That might be a way.
00:26:50
Bloom Wild Girls
Well, have an idea for how to interact with younger people. So at our old church, we used to go to a church in Slow. And for like maybe almost a year, I helped out the preschool class.
00:27:01
Bloom Wild Girls
Yes. And then we switched to the Atascadero campus after 11 years of going there. And I helped out in the preschool class there. And i mean, I really liked it. It was nice interacting with all those ages and things.
00:27:14
Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah, I agree. I was going to say serving a church. So you got that. Serving a church, babysitting, all these. And I think one of the big things that comes to mind when we think of interacting with people of different ages, i would say there's kind of two big things. One would be the mentorship aspect of being able to learn from other people and being able also to help other people, to give advice to other people maybe, or encouragement to others.
00:27:37
Bloom Wild Girls
And then I think it also teaches us a lot of selflessness and and a lot of how to love people when we're interacting with many different kinds of people and many different ages and stages. um I think that it we have to deny ourselves a little bit and put the interests and needs of others first. And mean, be even beyond like biblical wisdom, there's so much to learn and hear from people in different stages and um what they've gone through in life. And it can be so valuable.
00:28:05
Bloom Wild Girls
Kind of like even we read stories of missionaries who aren't even living anymore. They're even from a further generation and that can be valuable. But, and like you said, the last thing that I think is beneficial is just learning how to exist in the world.
00:28:17
Bloom Wild Girls
with when you go to the grocery store when you go to the library when you're out in public just having an understanding of people of different ages and stages having a respect for them yes and something can just do you could just like smile at them exactly great yeah you don't have to start a whole conversation with everybody you see you could just smile or say oh hi let's walk past or something and if we want to be able to be a witness for the lord As well, um I think being able to talk to people of different ages and interact with them is really valuable because you never know who God's going to bring to you to share the gospel with. It could be an older person.
00:28:53
Bloom Wild Girls
It could be a younger person. It could be someone your same age. So if you have experience interacting with them, you're you'll have, I think you'll feel better about about it if that situation arises. Yes.
00:29:05
Bloom Wild Girls
And also, like, if you act, like, nice and around all ages and you can interact with them while people are may be like, oh, Christians are, like, good at interacting with everybody. Like, maybe i would like to be a Christian.
00:29:16
Bloom Wild Girls
And then they might be interested and talk to you about it. Yeah, I think it's a good reflection of what Jesus says about us being united, loving one another, and and the value of people. When we actually act that way in our life, we value babies, and we value toddlers, and we value preteens, and we value teens, and we value moms and dads and we value people who are single or people who are married or people who are old. It doesn't, that shows kind of what Jesus did that he valued all those people.
00:29:47
Bloom Wild Girls
um It's kind of, that's kind of a sanctity of life issue. All people are valuable. Okay. Any last thoughts on interacting with people of different ages and why it's valuable just to encourage people to, to do it if it's something that they're not really doing very often now, anything you would say?
00:30:04
Bloom Wild Girls
You might, like like I did, find like a really good friend and someone younger. And if you never interacted with them, you might never find yeah really good friend that you might have. That's a good encouragement.
00:30:15
Bloom Wild Girls
My best friends, one's older and one's younger. See, that's great. And the middle. There you go. What I would say for my last piece of encouragement is you might have to fake it till you make it.
00:30:27
Bloom Wild Girls
I don't always feel great talking to people. like I get uncomfortable or feel nervous because I was always very shy growing up. But I remember when I finally decided my my husband is very, your guys' yeah daddy is very talkative, very good at talking people, and I'm not very good.
00:30:42
Bloom Wild Girls
But I realized we were always going to be talking to new people the time. So I just kind of started pretending i was like him and that I wasn't nervous and I wasn't embarrassed and I wasn't shy. And i think that when you do that, you get better at it.
00:30:55
Bloom Wild Girls
And now you're not as shy. Yeah, and you think about, well, the other person might be the one who's embarrassed, so I'll just pretend I'm not. And then I'll be the one yeah acting. Don't always wait for the other one to do it first. Yeah, so that's the other piece of advice I would get. Don't be the one who makes the first minute Yeah, it might feel uncomfortable or might bother you at first, but um just to try it. Just to try it. Ask God to help you.
00:31:14
Bloom Wild Girls
Try it. Give it a shot and see see what happens. Okay, any words? And also not – That's like another point. Not everyone really like marries someone their exact age. That's true. And so maybe you're like, I'm not going to interact with somebody and you might never find like the perfect person for you.
00:31:29
Bloom Wild Girls
Well, I would also say not even in the context of marriage, but just relationships. Like um daddy and i used to have a growth group and it was called like the young marriage group, but the age range is probably over 10 years.
00:31:41
Bloom Wild Girls
and So you don't always forever hang out with people at your same age. You kind of the gaps between those ages, seem to get smaller, even with siblings. You know, yeah you think you're so different when you're growing up and then you become adults and you can't even really tell who's older necessarily. So if you foster those relationships with your younger, it's kind of cool how they can change and develop over time.
00:32:03
Bloom Wild Girls
Well, I think that was a good conversation, girls. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we've encouraged people to um look around them and see who they can interact with, who they can learn from and who they can maybe even be an example to.
00:32:15
Bloom Wild Girls
And to try to be open-minded with um who they're spending their time with. and And remember that all people at all stages are valuable and have something to offer. And I mean, there's a reason why God created all these different ages instead of us just existing in one stage. Yeah. Right? That each stage matters. even All and all All live and all Yeah. And we have all these stages of development. And so they're all there's a purpose for all of them because God is purposeful, right?
00:32:40
Bloom Wild Girls
yeah Okay. Well, thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.