Bloggers note: Continuing on from last week, I am using more writings from William Barclay about the generation gap and surprisingly, although his text is some years old, it maintains relevance in today’s “Covid 19” environment.
As I finish “homeschooling” with my two granddaughters and they return to full time classes, I would like to dedicate this reading to them and thank them both for teaching me, the product of another generation, so much.

“Every Day with William Barclay” William Barclay – Reading for 24 May

A FRIEND INDEED!

There is, so far as the so-called generation gap is concerned, the gap produced by the whole concept of authority.
No one likes the feeling of being subject to authority. There was a time when a child had to obey, and, if he asked why, he was told by the parent, “because I said so”.
Nothing but trouble can emerge from an attitude like that. There must always be sympathy; there must always be a genuine attempt to understand the other point of view, and there must always be communication.

A person is much more likely to obey, if he knows the reason why he is being asked to do a thing.
The parent who is the dictator is simply insulting his child’s intelligence and personality by demanding a blind and unreasoning obedience.
The parent who is a guide and counsellor in the business of life is at least treating the child as a person – and that is the first essential.

If a parent is to be a friend to his child, there must be communication. The tragedy of modern family life is that so very often parents and children drift so far apart from each other that in the end they cannot even make conversation. They have nothing to say to each other.
This is the situation that must not arise; and that it should not arise is the responsibility of the parent.

Happy is the child whose parents are not only his parents but also his friends.