By bro Lee Tian Seng
As adults, we respect all kinds of authority in the government, in businesses, in the church, and in the family. If we want to raise children to respect authority, we must teach them from young to properly relate and submit to those who are in authority.
Learning to respect authority begins at home for children, since their first relationship with an authority figure is with their parents. If children do not learn to respect the authority of their parents, they would likely not learn to respect other kinds of authority. Teaching children to respect authority is what God wants parents to do because God has ordained authority.
How should children show respect for authority at home?
Firstly, they should act obediently. God expects children to obey their parents. When we let our children disobey our instructions and get away with it, we will be nurturing them to think that it is alright to break rules and misbehave. If they carry this habit to adulthood, they may break the laws of the land and commit crimes without thinking that they have done any wrong.
Ephesians 6:1-3 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
Secondly, they should honour or respect their parents. Children should learn that they owe their parents respect for who they are and what they have done for them. Some people argue that it is the responsibility of the parents to bring up their children. So, what do they owe their parents? However, God teaches us that children honour their parents out of piety and respect for them.
1 Timothy 5:4 - But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.
Thirdly, children show respect by speaking respectfully to their parents. Some people believe that children should be given the right to speak up. However, showing respect does not mean that children cannot speak up. They can do so respectfully.
1 Timothy 5:1-2 - Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.
Lastly, children should not strike their parents. When parents allow little children to hit them, they are telling them that it is alright to behave in such a disrespectful way. Parents must begin early to teach their children that such conduct will not be tolerated. If your little child hits you in defiance and disagreement with your wishes, you must punish that child severely and teach him that he never has the right to strike you.
Exodus 21:15 - And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
Proverbs 19:26 - He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.
When parents teach their children to respect authority from young, they will grow up respecting all kinds of authority, including the authority of God.
Matthew 28:18-20 - And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
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