The past couple of months
have been somewhat difficult for me.
Entering adulthood is a very exciting,
but challenging time.
Ever since I was little,
I just couldn't wait to be a 'grown-up'.
And now that it's within sight,
I constantly find myself impatient
and trying to rush things.
I suddenly fell for the idea
that since I was leaving home (for college),
I was the one who should be controlling my life.
Of course, I wasn't owning up to,
it in that wording,
but I figured that
since I'm pretty much an adult,
I can do what I want, right?
So I confess, I was getting pretty frustrated
if my parents would tell me "no",
or tell me to do a certain thing a certain way.
I mean, God should be my only authority,
shouldn't He?
I was actually believing
that I was the one in the right!
But God's been using
a lot of different circumstances,
and a lot of prayers and discussions
to pop my pride bubble
and show me I was the one who was wrong.
OUCH!
I was grieved at the disrespect
that I had allowed to pile up in my heart.
He's shown me that, still being under my parent's roof,
I am still under their authority, like it or not.
And just by turning 18,
it doesn't make me exempt from honoring my parents.
They are the authority God has placed in my life.
And the commandment He has given is
"Honor your parents".
No matter what age,
we're instructed to honor and obey our parents.
Parents are God-given authority in our lives.
They have lived longer, had more experience,
and can think clearer than we can.
God knows just what each of us needs
in order to be who He wants us to be.
His purpose was to use our parents to get us to that goal.
I realize that young adulthood
is a challenging time for many,
so I just wanted to encourage those of you
(and any age, for that matter!),
don't despise the convictions and rules
placed by your parents.
If you don't think they are God's 'rules',
well, they ARE!
He said to honor and obey,
thus that's His will for you right now!
If your Mom says to make supper,
it's actually God telling you to.
Looking back in my younger years,
I remember some rules and restrictions
that I thought at the time were dumb or pointless...
but I can now see
that the Lord has spared me a lot of heartache and trouble
by placing it in my parent's hearts,
even though I wasn't happy to comply.
I look back on something like that
and only wish I was more submissive
and obedient in those areas...
but I can't change the past.
I am writing the present and the future, however,
and it is my desire to be able
to look back and say that I was glad
of how I responded to
authority through my late teen years,
and throughout my life.
I've realized,
I really can't continue in that way on my own;
I need help from my precious, precious Jesus
every second of the day.
"I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me."
This is why it is so important
to keep a sweet and intimate relationship with Him!
We shouldn't just try and "survive"
the years of young adulthood,
we need to thrive.
God has lessons to teach us,
if we're willing to humble ourselves to listen.
have been somewhat difficult for me.
Entering adulthood is a very exciting,
but challenging time.
Ever since I was little,
I just couldn't wait to be a 'grown-up'.
And now that it's within sight,
I constantly find myself impatient
and trying to rush things.
I suddenly fell for the idea
that since I was leaving home (for college),
I was the one who should be controlling my life.
Of course, I wasn't owning up to,
it in that wording,
but I figured that
since I'm pretty much an adult,
I can do what I want, right?
So I confess, I was getting pretty frustrated
if my parents would tell me "no",
or tell me to do a certain thing a certain way.
I mean, God should be my only authority,
shouldn't He?
I was actually believing
that I was the one in the right!
But God's been using
a lot of different circumstances,
and a lot of prayers and discussions
to pop my pride bubble
and show me I was the one who was wrong.
OUCH!
I was grieved at the disrespect
that I had allowed to pile up in my heart.
He's shown me that, still being under my parent's roof,
I am still under their authority, like it or not.
And just by turning 18,
it doesn't make me exempt from honoring my parents.
They are the authority God has placed in my life.
And the commandment He has given is
"Honor your parents".
No matter what age,
we're instructed to honor and obey our parents.
Parents are God-given authority in our lives.
They have lived longer, had more experience,
and can think clearer than we can.
God knows just what each of us needs
in order to be who He wants us to be.
His purpose was to use our parents to get us to that goal.
I realize that young adulthood
is a challenging time for many,
so I just wanted to encourage those of you
(and any age, for that matter!),
don't despise the convictions and rules
placed by your parents.
If you don't think they are God's 'rules',
well, they ARE!
He said to honor and obey,
thus that's His will for you right now!
If your Mom says to make supper,
it's actually God telling you to.
Looking back in my younger years,
I remember some rules and restrictions
that I thought at the time were dumb or pointless...
but I can now see
that the Lord has spared me a lot of heartache and trouble
by placing it in my parent's hearts,
even though I wasn't happy to comply.
I look back on something like that
and only wish I was more submissive
and obedient in those areas...
but I can't change the past.
I am writing the present and the future, however,
and it is my desire to be able
to look back and say that I was glad
of how I responded to
authority through my late teen years,
and throughout my life.
I've realized,
I really can't continue in that way on my own;
I need help from my precious, precious Jesus
every second of the day.
"I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me."
This is why it is so important
to keep a sweet and intimate relationship with Him!
We shouldn't just try and "survive"
the years of young adulthood,
we need to thrive.
God has lessons to teach us,
if we're willing to humble ourselves to listen.
4 comments:
I know what you are saying! For the past couple of weeks, mom has been pressuring me to find my own place in this world. (Job, car, school, etc.). I told her one day "I don't wanna be a grown-up.". As we were on our way to church this morning, God spoke to me. He said "Alli, you are going to be a grown-up. You have to step out into the unknown. You got to learn to drive, and make the right choices for your self instead of mom." I said "You know what, you are right.". I guess I should say this has been one of the important messages I have heard in my life.
-Alli
Children are told to obey their parents. You are no longer a child.
Children and adults alike must honor their parents. Doesn't mean the adult needs to obey their parents, especially if it goes against what God has shown you.
There is a big difference between honoring and obeying.
Mrs. W ~ Please tread carefully. We are still commanded to obey those in authority over us. We cannot judge from the outside each person's circumstance, whether or not they are under the authority of their parents, and whether or not they are an "adult". Yes, there is a difference between honoring and obeying. Obeying is to comply with commands, orders, or instructions. Honoring is to revere, respect, to treat with deference (a yielding) and submission.
The Heavenly Father has even the obedience and submission of godless, wicked leaders to accomplish HIS good. Certainly, we would not obey something that contradicts HIS commands (like when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to obey and bow to a false god)... we are to obey God rather than man when man requires us to do evil. But HE can and does still accomplish HIS good. Blessings abound when obedience does. To obey is better than sacrifice.
I agree that we are to obey those in authority over us, that is clear in the Bible. However, nowhere does the Bible even suggest that an adult is still under the authority of their parents. Only children are under their parent's authority.
I personally know people who have not grasped this concept. This woman is married now but has been taught that at almost 30, and married, that the Bible commands her to still obey her parents (where?) and so sometimes, her parents go on vacation, and her dad tells her that her and her daughters are to go with them, and so she packs up and goes, leaving her husband behind. But, she is taught (and Biblically so) that she is to obey her husband to. But her husband is considered "disobedient" too if he doesn't go along with what the woman's parents want.
I know parents would like to control their kids their whole lives, my husbands mother is one of them. She still tries to manipulate us into obeying her every whim and my husband is 26 now. He does need to honor his mom, but his mom also needs to respect that he's the head of his own household now too.
Honestly I think if we loved the Lord with all our heart, and loved our neighbour as ourselves, it would take care of most of this issue. Parents usually have a lot more wisdom than us, but sometimes parents are just dead wrong. Would you want your daughter to go against something God specifically has for her just because you didn't like it? What if you had sin in your life and were full of pride and wanting your daughter to do something detrimental to her? Wouldn't you want her to go with what God is showing her?
Admittedly it looks like you allow your daughter much more freedom than some of the hyper patriarchial people I know, who let their daughters work but then "lock up" all the money they earn and only give them little bits of it as THEY choose to dole it out (and the women are in their 20's). It's just messed up.
If I had "obeyed" my father as an adult, I'd still be in Australia, unsaved, married to a man with long hair, and a presbyterian believing in calvinism.
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