Have you ever been around an older person who talks about what it was like to be young? They reminisce about the music they listened to, the lack of responsibility they had, the freedom they experienced. They almost always talk about being young as if it’s awesome. And for the most part, they’re right. Being young is awesome. You don’t pay taxes. You don’t have to understand insurance. And someone, someone other than you, buys you snacks. It’s a pretty good set up. But just because being young is awesome doesn’t mean it’s easy. There are some tough parts to being a student. For starters, there’s school. Maybe you’ve heard someone say those are the best years of your life, but it sure doesn’t feel that way when you’re sitting in Geometry class. What’s worse is when people ignore you or treat you like you don’t matter because you’re younger—like somehow the date on your birth certificate disqualifies you from having an opinion. In fact, maybe one of the toughest parts of being young is feeling like you don’t count yet, like you can’t be heard or respected or even helpful until you’re older. And it’s frustrating because, deep down it feels like that shouldn’t be true, like there’s something wrong with that system. If you’ve ever felt that way, you’re in good company. As we take a look at two letters from the New Testament written to a young church leader named Timothy, we find not only why by but how to keep anyone from looking down on us just because we are young.