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Divorcing Parents

There has been a story in the news about an 18-year-old girl in New Jersey who wants to be free of her parents. She took them to court. She accused them of harsh treatment – not abuse, mind you, but stuff like obeying the rules in the same way her siblings were required to do. Nothing unusual. Curfew. Rules about dating. Things like that. But to her it was cruel and unusual.

She is an intelligent young lady who makes good grades. She just found her parent’s house rules too burdensome for her taste. She left the house of her own free will but now wants her parents to financially support her. She has a sympathetic friend whose father is a lawyer and sued her parents on her behalf.

I am making a complicated story very simple. I cannot begin to imagine the heartache… the wounds that have been inflicted on this family. I pray they will be able to move on in grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Most reasonable people would find this story bazaar. If a child is under your roof and you are paying the bills it is not unreasonable to expect certain standards of behavior. If at 18, she wants to go out on her own then she can make that choice but a parent is not obligated to support her or her lifestyle. She wants the goodies but not the rules.

Fortunately, there was a judge who had common sense.

There was much discussion about it. And as I listened to the discussions, I thought we treat God exactly the same way. We want His blessings but not His rules. We want our independence. We want own way. We want “freedom”, emancipation. We do not want restrictions. Like a good parent, God does not let us get away with that. There are consequences for our choices.

The sooner we learn that, the better it will be. God always wins.

0 replies
  1. Nkr
    Nkr says:

    I think this is the first half of a modern day version of the prodigal (son) child.
    Praying for this family. And for so many others who are in the same or similar situations. I can feel the heartbreak they are going through.

    Reply
  2. LB
    LB says:

    When my son was four, he ran from me in the post office. I left the line in hot pursuit, packages in hand. A stern talking to later, we went back to the line. As I got to the counter and was setting down the packages, off he went again. This time I left the packages in pursuit of him. It was a large post office and he had run into a bay of P.O. boxes. I lifted my hand to swat his little bottom and a woman at her mailbox said, “don’t you dare ‘hit’ him”. My son clung to my leg at the sternness of the woman’s voice. I don’t know all of the circumstances involved in the case of the young woman and her parent’s having ground rules for their children to abide by in the home. But, the world resists discipline and it makes it difficult for parents. How I pray we continue to love our families like God loves us.

    Reply

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