There's an ugh in your eye

Anyone with teenagers understands the utter frustration of the eye roll. When coupled with the grunt of "ugh" it can engender more than simple frustration. It can incite anger, perhaps even rage, but mostly it begets despair. With half a syllable, a young man or woman can destroy the relationship with a parent. The level of disregard, disdain, and disrespect communicated by this simple act is beyond description. It proclaims loudly and clearly that the child entirely rejects everything the parent has ever provided. The long, sleepless nights during the teething, ignored. The encouragement on that scary first day of school, useless. Every dime spent housing, feeding, and clothing the offspring, inadequate. The deep abiding love the parent feels in his innermost being for the child, vomited out like a bit of bad fish.

The Bible, of course, is not silent on this interaction. Paul strongly, but wisely, reminds children that obedience to their parents is not only a commandment from God, but a commandment with a promise. God understands teenagers. He gets that sometimes simply telling them "what" is not the best way to achieve His will. He also lets them in on why in Eph 6:1-3. Yes, it essentially boils down to "it's for your own good," but when the Heavenly Father says it there's more substance than when this earthly father does so. One has to go back in the OT to find out exactly what "for your own good" really means in God's terms.

As a father who has received disrespect from his children, God has a very strong reaction to it. If I think the fires of my righteous indignation are banked high when the kids are little snits, it's nothing compared to God's anger over it. Proverbs 30:17 puts it this way:

As for the eye that ridicules a father and despises obedience to a mother, may ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures eat it.

Yep, disrespect from children to parents gets God's dander up. I'm hurt and angry when it happens to me; God gets down right vengeful about it. I say to the kids, "I hope one day you understand how much this hurts." God says, "may the ravens of the valley pluck [your eye] out and young vultures eat it." He's not pulling any punches. So when God says respecting your parents is for your own good what He means is that disrespecting your parents is worthy of His righteous and holy wrath. I have to agree with God that avoiding it is most decidedly for your own good. Bottom line, when you roll your eyes and "ugh" at me, you may hurt me in my heart of hearts, but, worse, you make God fighting mad. I love you enough to caution you against such behavior. I should probably turn that advice back on myself, too, especially when I want to roll my eyes and ugh at God.