I am in my 40s but am blessed to count several young adults in my friendship group and many more in my acquaintance. I have found them to be passionate for the gospel and incredibly hard workers. They are focused and open-minded and keen as jumping beans to learn. At the same time, they have incredible insights, clarity of thought and just plain interesting ideas.

We have young adults all wrong. There’s a common stereotype of young adults being lazy, feckless and irresponsible. They’re the generation that never had to do it tough. They’re the social media generation who can say “yes” to a million events… which means that 99% of the time their yes is actually no. They want to travel, be promoted five minutes after they join a company, and spend all their money on indulgences.

But there’s a problem with this picture.

First of all, it’s not been my experience. Okay, it’s been a little bit my experience, but the stereotypes of Gen Y are far outweighed by the other characteristics I’ve come across. I am in my 40s but am blessed to count several young adults in my friendship group and many more in my acquaintance. I have found them to be passionate for the gospel and incredibly hard workers. They are focused and open-minded and keen as jumping beans to learn. At the same time, they have incredible insights, clarity of thought and just plain interesting ideas.

Secondly, a disparaging view of young adults is not biblical. In 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul exhorts Timothy: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”. Timothy is Paul’s protégé—and knowing Paul as we do, you don’t get to be his protégé unless you are faithful, obedient, passionate, energetic, humble and smart. But still there is a sad expectation that people will look down on him because he is young.

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