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When I was much younger, perhaps 5 or so, I was out grocery shopping with my mother. A fair distance away I could see a boy about my age and his mother in the aisle having an argument. The boy obviously wanted something that his mother firmly refused to give him, so he whined and cried, and in desperate frustration the boy’s mother tried in vain to haul her child toward the doors. The boy broke free of her grasp screaming, “You jerk!” My mouth gaped open at such a display of disrespect, and I distinctly remember looking at my mother, shocked at what we had just seen.
What kind of a person that boy will grow up to be, I haven’t the faintest idea. But it pains me to know he was only the first of many I have come to see who disrespect their parents. Unfortunately, most parents in the world are completely passive and against disciplining their children, and their kids become terrors to them and everyone else.
My mom is a single working parent. She works eight hours a day, five days a week. And only recently have I come to appreciate and admire how much she cares and how much effort she puts into supporting the both of us. Though I don’t have a father, my mother certainly tries her best at filling both roles to the maximum of her abilities. And I’m expected to do my part by helping out around the house and by obeying my mother.
She and I are like a team. If one of us fails to do our part, then it’s a dead-end. What about you and your parents? Do you respect your parents’ decisions that go contrary to what you had anticipated?
Truthfully, when I was little, I thought my mom only made the decisions she made to torture me. I’ve heard time and time again from peers and strangers how much they hate their parents because they didn’t do this or they didn’t buy them that. But think for a moment how much your parents do do for you. If they really wanted you to be miserable, they’d probably just beat you and keep you locked in a closet like many of the abusive parents do today. Or they’d just ignore you completely.
At the Feast in Ohio last year I was spending some alone time in my hotel room watching the news and was shocked when I saw that a single mother had locked her three children in the closet and left for six hours to go on a shopping spree. Her poor children were all under the age of 12, locked in a closet with hardly enough air to breathe, no food, no restroom. When she returned, her youngest was dead and her other two barely alive. I was devastated. And I thanked God for my mother, who raises me and treats me according to His standard.
It’s common nowadays to hear about mothers throwing away their newborns, fathers coming home drunk and beating their wives and children, and even children shooting their parents. The mothers in this world are losing that maternal love for their children and children are losing that respect for their parents, and fathers rarely fulfill their roles as they should. It’s a sick world out there. Nothing about it should be seducing or attractive to us whatsoever.
Be thankful for your parents, or parent, and appreciate how much they do for you.