What must fathers and mothers do to honor their children? In Ephesians (6:4) the apostle Paul writes, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Let's kick this off from that perspective.
My first premise is this: all parents exasperate their children, at least by the time the children are teenagers. This continues for the rest of their lives. If it was true during the first century, C.E., it's even more true now.
The music my mother loved was s o o o o different from the music I loved. The assumptions about reality my father had were so out of step with the assumptions a young adult in the 1950's was able to have. The assumptions I live by, even though I work to live the "examined life" and change with the changes in my environment are immensely different than the assumptions my children have about living and being successful.
That's one point.
The other is this: as we parents decline physically simply by getting older, we begin to repeat ourselves. We find ourselves depressed when we are required to retire. We aren't as much fun to be around in the ways we were when we were younger.
Some of us drool. Some of us forget things. Some of us don't hear as well. You get the picture. For the go-get-up young adult, this is exasperating! "God!" she thinks, "I can't stand to be around my [mother] [father] [grandma] [grandpa].
Sorry, kids. Just as you couldn't help being young when you were born, parents can't help being old when they age.
Suck it up.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know.
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