By RTF Editor BJ Hamrick

Imagine this: You’re walking down the street minding your own business, when something green and slimy hits the pavement two inches in front of you.

Gross. Is Herbert Johnston spitting his gum at you again? That is so 4th grade.

Suddenly the green thing moves. It moans as it jiggles. And you realize – this is not Herbert’s gum.

This… thing… is alive.

You run — screaming in the other direction.

Beeeeeeep.

We interrupt this riveting story with a really bad analogy.

That green gunky thing on the sidewalk is a lot like our parents.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying they’re [always] gross. I’m just saying sometimes they appear out of nowhere.

We’re going along in life – everything’s fine. We’re managing school work – relationships – sometimes even jobs. Then the parents appear and start telling us what to do.

Our gut reaction is to turn and run. Because, really, what are they doing here? Don’t they know we’re perfectly capable of running our own lives?

But before we turn and run, we should ask ourselves a couple of questions:

• Is it really going to kill me to listen to my parent talk for a few minutes?

• Is it possible that he or she has good intentions?

• Does he or she have life experiences I can benefit from?

• What do I want our relationship to look like a few years down the road?

Even if we disagree with our parents, we can at least hear them out. That’s part of what God calls “honoring”… and part of honoring is treating people with more respect than we would something green… or slimy… or just plain freakish.

****

When was a time you struggled with your parents’ viewpoint?

Tell me in the comments, or email BJ at realteenfaith@gmail.com.