Colossians 3:20 says, "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord."
Immediately following both of these verses are verses that tell fathers not to provoke their children. I love the balance that this shows. We, as children, are to obey our parents and our parents are to treat us in a way that will make us want to obey.
In today's society, honoring our parents is not a priority for anyone. Parents(for the most part) are with looked at as "friends" or doormats. They try to be friends because they want their kids to talk to them and they want their children to look at them as "cool" but when they do that, they lose the respect and obedience that children are commanded to give their parents. Parents turn into doormats when the parents might not have taught their children to respect them or obey them properly when they were young so when they grow up they take advantage of them and walk all over them. And I'm not just applying this to kids or teenagers but adults. These two parenting ideas are even acted out in TV shows like it's the norm(sadly because it probably is for the most part).
Children are to obey their parents as long as their parents are not instructing them against what God says. If parents tell their children to do something sinful, then the children are to obey God rather than men(which I talked about earlier this week with Acts 5:29). This verse doesn't qualify it and say "obey your parents as long as they are following Jesus". So if you are in a situation where your parents are not believers, you need to make sure that you are weighing everything they tell you to do with what God is telling you.
This isn't just a suggestion to listen to my parents when I feel like it. But a command to obey them in all things(as long as it doesn't contradict God's word). This one gets confusing now that I don't live at home. I know that I still need to respect my parents. But if there was something that they told me to do that I didn't agree with(that isn't sinful), would I still have to obey them even though their role in my life is a bit different now since I am an adult? I think that if that did happen, I would need to just take it to God(which I should be doing always anyways) and ask for Him to show me what to do and make sure that I am deciding not to do it because God told me not to, not because I just don't want to. At that point, it's my job to handle the situation with gentleness and respect.
I know there's been times in my life where I didn't handle situations with my parents correctly. And I'm sure that at the moment I could probably justify the heck out of it. But no matter what reasons I have, nothing gives me the right to be disrespectful or disobedient(unless of course they told me to do something sinful, which I already talked about).
It pleases my Heavenly Father when I obey my earthly parents. He has given me to them to train up in the way I should go. My job is to obey them.
Application:
Today, I will take an extra 10 minutes to lift my parents in prayer and I will pray that God will help me to obey and respect my parents, even now when I don't live with them.
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