One of the most reoccurring questions in college ministry is the issue of a Christian’s obligations to one’s parents. When does, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph. 6:1) come to an end? After all, most thirty year-olds don’t call their folks to check when curfew is. And what is the difference between children obeying (vs. 1) and “honoring” (Eph. 6:2), which the text implies is a life-long duty (“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land”).
Things are more cut and dry in high school, when teenagers are under their parents’ roof. But college seems like an in-between phase in many ways. Students have differing levels of financial independence from their parents. Some are totally paying their own way. Others are living at home all-year to save money. Still others live where they want, and mom-and-dad pick up the tuition and rent tab.
The issue can be particularly excruciating when it comes to seeking parental blessings to marry a boyfriend/girlfriend. Candice Watters does a great job tackling the issue of unresolved differences between a twenty-year old college student, who is apparently paying all her own bills, and her parents, who refuse to bless her desire to marry a boyfriend of two years until graduation.