I often  find myself comparing Generation Z & the millennials (Generation Y) to our parents generation (Generation X), it is interesting for me to see how things have evolved over time including mindsets and disciplines. It never gets old to me when I do something and I hear my mum say “in my time…” or “when I was your age…“.

Something hilarious always follows after that.

A huge difference I have observed is how much of a ‘strong‘ generation the past generation was and by that I mean how they would hide emotion to show strength and how strength was encouraged to come before feelings. They were raised braving things and ignoring the feelings just to get things done and the result of that is they turned out very strong people, particularly emotionally but deficient in the expression of their true feelings.

On the flip side, our generation came crazed about feelings and emotions, before being strong, we first wanna voice out how something makes us feel and the emotions that come with it. We’re a lot more “sensitive” and expressive but frankly, not as strong because our feelings usually come first and is not suppressed like in the time of our parents.

So without trying to make sweeping generalisations, the previous generation was largely ‘strong’ and we on the other hand, are a lot more ‘sensitive’. This is not to say that these two things are mutually exclusive, it is just a holistic description of what differentiates us from the previous generation.

Like most things in life, balance is always important. It is not wise or effective to be on either sides of the extremes, it is important that we find a balance between being strong and being sensitive, particularly emotionally, meaning that we need healthy doses of things that will make us strong but also give us the space and opportunity to express our true feelings without fears of being bashed.

Some of us reading this have been raised or made strong by events of life, while some of us have shielded ourselves from being strong by always using our feelings as excuses and it is usually very unconscious that these things happen so no one is to be blamed really, it will just take a critical evaluation of ourselves to identify if we’ve been on either sides of the extremes and find a balance.

Being healthy is being able to handle issues and situations of life without excusing it away with our feelings or emotions. Over time, I have come to see that our feelings are even too volatile to drive us and so we cannot subject our entire operation as human beings to the way we feel.

The higher alternative is a spirit-led person who subjects both strength and emotion to the Holy spirit because the Holy spirit inspires balance in the life of a man. I want to inspire a healthy generation of people who are less worried about being strong or sensitive and more conscious of reacting as led by the spirit. This is in no way undermining resources that help people build strength and sensitivity, it is just saying that we be conscious not to fall into the extreme where we advocate one and ignore the other because balance is what is most important.