A Common Path

You and your parents usually want the same things for your life: health, prosperity, and success. Where things tend to break down isn’t the goal—it’s the path to get there. You don’t always agree on how those good things should be pursued.

If I were addressing your parents, I would have plenty to say from God’s Word about their responsibilities toward you. But today, I’m speaking to you, and that means focusing on what God requires of your heart and actions.

You are accountable to God, and He intentionally placed you under your parents’ authority. That doesn’t mean your parents are perfect. They are sinners, just like you. They don’t possess all wisdom, and they’re learning as they go. As my father used to say, “You’ve never been fourteen, and I’ve never been the father of a fourteen-year-old.” That learning curve is real—but God knew all of that when He joined you together as parent and child.

Your calling, then, is not to wait for flawless parents, but to learn how to honor God by honoring the parents He gave you. You’re approaching a major transition in life, moving toward a time when you’ll establish your own covenant household. Don’t abandon God’s design now by bolting from His calling prematurely.

Scripture does speak about pursuing your desires—Ecclesiastes especially—but it never does so without a warning. Desire, when untethered from wisdom and obedience, can lead you away from life rather than into it.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. ¹⁰ Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity.” ―Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” ―1 Timothy 4:11

“The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: ² To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, ³ to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity; ⁴ to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion—⁵ a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, ⁶ to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. ⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” ―Proverbs 1:1-7