Family & Parenting
My parent keeps asking me for things I do not want to give. Does honoring them mean always saying yes?
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
This line arrives at the very beginning of Scripture, long before any commandment about parents, and it says a person leaves father and mother to form a new household. It is describing a design rather than a rebellion. God's own account of family assumes that a real separation happens, and that an adult child is meant to become the head of something instead of a permanent extension of their parents' home.
“And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?”
Luke tells the only story we have of Jesus between infancy and adulthood, and in it he does something his parents find genuinely upsetting. He stays behind, and when they find him he gently declines their framing of what happened. Two verses later Luke notes that he went home and was subject to them. Both things sit in the same paragraph: a clear no about the thing itself, and no dishonor.
A path forward
Answer the next request with a promise to think about it and come back tomorrow, rather than yes or no in the moment. The habit of immediate compliance is usually what allows the requests to grow.
Decide in advance what you can genuinely give: the money, the hours, the number of visits. A limit set calmly ahead of time is far easier to hold than one improvised while you are feeling guilty.
Pray through the specific request before you answer, and ask one trusted person whether your no is self-protection or self-indulgence. Both exist, and outside eyes are much better at telling them apart than you are.
Closing verse
“Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”
- Psalm 143:8
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