Friday; November 3

When the Apostle Paul offered a mini-series on the family he didn’t pull any punches.  After outlining the relationships between husbands and wives he taught, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.  Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”.  (Ephesians 6:1-4)  While the teaching seems to be pretty straight forward, we have spent centuries trying to define the specifics of these roles.  Even though these relationships will look different within each family, there are certain core concepts that must be present – one of which is simple “communication”.  Growing up in the Sixties and Seventies when we used the phrase “Communication Gap” but what does it mean and, more importantly, how do we fix it?
At the heart of this issue is the willingness to respect one another.  I believe that it is unnatural to expect that two different people (much less two different generations of people) are going to agree on everything, so we have to be willing to exchange ideas in a respectful tone.  We must rely on a willingness to listen to one another and learn from each other.  Sure, parents must retain the right to have the last word (that naturally makes sense because they should be wiser than their youngers – not to mention that that’s how God ordained it), but that must not be an excuse to be overbearing and uncaring.  We must be willing to trust each other and know when it is time to talk and when it is time to wait.  Children (especially teens) have a zeal for life that is more dependent on an accelerator than a brake.  Parents must be willing to understand this enthusiasm and utilize it to help their children grow as they go.
Are we hoping for family bliss?  Let’s begin with communication and see just how far that can take us.
Think about it! 

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