Two anons (edited for length):

– I’ve recently made a breakthrough and grown in my relationship with God, and I believe that he’s told me that I was made to dance. I know that it would be foolish not to follow His plan for me, but my mom is so against it and she always calls me childish when I speak about it. I haven’t explained to her that God wants me to use my talents to glorify Him simply because I’m afraid of arguing again … Any advice?

– My parents have become one of the major roadblocks when it comes to my faith. I’ve already attempted to talk about them about this multiple times, but every single time, I’m shot down. We’re pretty heavily involved in the church. However, they don’t approve of most of my friends at church, and have begun to strongly discourage me to attend church events and activities. What should i be doing here …?

 

Hey, I completely understand the drama that comes with family. It’s also very possible that you can outgrow them and make better decisions — but that’s still no excuse to do whatever you want without regard for them.

I’ve hardly ever heard the church teach about when we spiritually outgrow our parents. It tends to be a very imbalanced shriek-session saying “You better honor your parents,” or it becomes a rebellious Western ploy on individualism saying “Ignore the haters, including your parents.” Neither teaching ever works out.

Usually we go one of two extremes, where 1) we try so hard to pull away from our parents that we end up despising them, or 2) we try so hard to please them that we end up miserable.

Sometimes we forget that parents are just people.

By that, I mean –

Continue reading “Question: Outgrowing My Parents” →