How to Have a Good Relationship With Your Parents

HOW TO HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR PARENTS
by: Mike McClain

Several years ago on a Saturday afternoon, I was out soul winning and I knocked on an apartment door.  A lady answered the door and I could see a very young boy was playing a video game in the living room. This very young boy was enthused with the game, but what really caught my attention was this young boy was stomping his foot and yelling, “KILL!”  As I looked on the screen I could see his character was stomping on the head of another person, and with every stomp he continued to chant, “KILL! KILL! KILL!”  I was shocked at what I was seeing, but what really grabbed me was that while I was watching him, his mom told him to  pause the game, and he told her to “SHUT UP!”, as he muttered, “or I’ll kill you!” His name was Tyler, and he had just turned four years old!  I can only imagine the relationship this young man will have with his mom when he is a teen if she isn’t already dead by then.

A lack of Biblical teaching and discipline in the home are the reason this young boy was acting like this, and it is the fault of the parents.  However, there comes a time when you as a young person or teenager are responsible for yourself.  As said in the title, this article is about how to have a good relationship with your parents.  Many articles could be written on how to develop and maintain good relationships. With that in mind, we will start with the foundation that makes a great relationship, and with what makes up the foundation of a horrible relationship.

I’m amazed these days as I see the way teenagers are responding to the authorities in their lives with back talking, cussing, yelling, arguing, and even mocking their parents and teachers.  From where does this lack of fear and reverence come?  When I was a young man, I was scared to death of what might happen if I spoke in a challenging, combative, or condescending tone to my parents.  I feared my parents, both in their ability to discipline me, but also in their ability to remove all luxuries from my life.  I was taught that I was not my own, I was their child, and I had nothing to claim of my own because it had all been paid for by someone else who just happened to be my dad.  When you look at the story of the Prodigal Son, you will see many issues that the son had, but first and foremost he had an issue of pride.  Why did he want to leave? Why wasn’t he satisfied?  Why didn’t he care about breaking the heart of his father?  Why did he not see the tears of his mother?  What caused him to not care about the time and teaching his father invested in him?  The answer is because he was proud!

Just like the prodigal son, that young boy Tyler, was somehow messed up in his thinking.  You see he didn’t realize who he was.  If that young man knew better, he could’ve realized that the very mom he threatened to kill while muttering under his breath, could very easily take his life, but yet instead she protected his life.  The food he ate for breakfast a few hours before I got there was provided to him by his parents, and through no merit of his own he enjoyed that life sustaining meal.  The very video game that was teaching him so horribly, was again provided to him by his parents. He had nothing to physically offer that was his...nothing!  He could provide nothing for himself, let alone his family; not food, not clothes, not electricity, not games or television, not shelter, or even bedding.  That young boy was totally dependent upon others, and yet he acted the exact opposite.  The only thing he was capable of offering was his love, obedience, and respect.  All three of those things were obviously missing as he was chanting, “Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”