November 5 was our meeting about our relationship with our parents. Many young people today think that authority is a bad and undesirable thing, and so they often rebel against the authorities God has placed in their lives. They fail to understand that as the Author of the universe, He has all authority over it and He delegates authority to human people to accomplish His purposes (Rom. 13:1-5). As young people, the primary authority God has placed over us is our parents. When we submit to their God-given authority, we are submitting to God (Eph. 6:1). When we disobey our parents authority, we are disobeying God. Believe it or not, being under authority has many benefits including provision, training, correction, and protection.
God has given us the protection of our parents. He uses their authority that He has set in place in our lives to bring blessing and to be a protection over us. Just like an umbrella protects us from getting wet from the rain, the authority of our parents protects us from the dangers of the world… as long as we stay under their authority. When we chose to obey our parents, we are choosing to be under the protection that God has set in place. When we disobey and resist authority we move out from under the protection that God has given us opening ourselves up to the dangers of the enemy.
It is so important that we have a good relationship with our parents. When we respect them and their authority, there are many blessings that follow. Honoring our parents and being submissive is often hard, yet it is the key to a close relationship with our parents. When your parents ask you to do something that you don’t like, ask the Lord to give you a submissive attitude. When we have an attitude of true submission, obedient actions will follow naturally and we will being honoring our parents and the Lord.
As we seek to be strong for the Lord and use the years of our youth for Him, we need to choose to honor the authority of our parents and seek to develop a close relationship with them. As we honor our parents, others will notice and we will be a shining testimony to them. Let’s each commit to honoring our parents and developing a close relationship with them for the glory of God. Ask the Lord to help you gain a submissive attitude and to provide you with opportunities to build your relationship with your parents.
For our activity time, the girls enjoyed making cards for their parents and writing notes of gratefulness to them.
Practical Assignment: Write down three specific ways that you can intentionally honor your parents this coming week and do those things before the next meeting!