This week we’re talking a lot about dealing with parents. Parents can be tricky to deal with. You might have a parent who is awful to you. You might have one that ignores you, perhaps you just see the hypocrisy in their life and it makes it hard for you to see the good in them.

It’s hard when your parents are less than perfect to respect them and give them the honor that the Bible says as kids we’re supposed to give them. So how do you go about dealing with parents that are less than perfect?

One of the first things you’ll have to do is forgive them. It’s easier to do this if you remember that your parents are human. They make mistakes. If they’re Christians, they’re sinners just like you are. They need Jesus and are probably working on being more like Him. If your parents aren’t saved, then you may be called to speak the love of Jesus into their lives.

But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. – Mark 11:25 (NLT)

Forgiving your parents for their mistakes and imperfections isn’t easy. However, as a follower of Jesus, you’re called to forgive others. And that includes your parents. So even if they don’t deserve forgiveness, determine to forgive anyway. Know that God has forgiven you of many things, and He can help you work on forgiving your parents too.

Today’s Truth: Forgive Your Parents – Even if They Don’t Deserve it.

Your parents might be the most amazing parents ever. Maybe they get you, and you feel like you can tell them anything. But more likely, your relationship with your parents might be less than you hoped for at times. Maybe reality for you is a cranky, upset parent that doesn’t seem to listen or understand you at all.

Even if your parents aren’t the ones of every kid’s dreams, as their child, the Bible asks that you honor them. Honoring can be really hard, especially when you see all their faults, flaws, and failures.

“Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you. – Exodus 20:12 (NLT)

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when it comes to honoring your parents.

Your parents don’t have to be perfect for you to still honor them. Yep, that might seem a little crazy, but even in all their imperfections, God still asks that you honor them. So when they get mad and do something that seems so weird to you, you still have to honor and respect them.

Your parents are people. They have bad days. They face stress just like you, so give them a little bit of space to be human. Sometimes we expect them to be superheroes, but they’re people just like you.

Honor Doesn’t Mean You Agree or Get Everything. Honoring your parents doesn’t mean that you have to understand, get, or agree with every decision they make. Instead, it’s just deciding to not lash out, or get angry, but to respect them for their God-given place in your life, and try your best to get along with them.

Today’s Truth: Honoring Your Parents is tough, but you can grow in it with God’s help!

Getting along with parents isn’t always easy, but as their child, it’s something that God has called you to do. So if you need help, go to God. Pray and ask for His help and His guidance in how you can grow in honoring your parents as God has called you to do.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Phil 4:7 (ESV)

Life is full of unexpected things. Perhaps you didn’t see your parent’s divorce coming or maybe a loved one died. And often in the midst of troubles like these, it’s easy to lose your peace.

It’s easy in trouble to lose your peace and focus on the trouble instead of Jesus.

Jesus will get you through the storm that you’re facing. If you’ll choose to focus on Him and let Him lead and guide you, you’ll come through the storm stronger and your faith will be strengthened.

So today, realize that you can have peace in a storm. You might be facing something unexpected, but Jesus is right there with you. He’s ready and able to help you each step of the way.

Go to Him and get the help and strength you need to face each day. Walk in His peace and see Him help you through the storm!

And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. – 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NLT)

God has provided us with so many blessings. It’s easy to forget how good he’s been to us as we’re living our lives, and often get caught up in all the busyness of each day. One of the great blessings we’ve been given is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit teaches us and shows us things from God’s word. Have you ever woken up at night, and been thinking about a scripture? Then maybe you see something different about that scripture then you’ve ever seen before? If so, that’s the Holy Spirit. He’s leading you as you study scripture and showing you wonderful things about what God has given us.

However, if you haven’t, don’t worry. The Holy Spirit is there for us all to learn from. Begin to expect to be led as you read your Bible. When you read scripture, get quiet and listen. That thought, or prompting as you read is often Him leading you.

Today’s Truth: Ask the Holy Spirit to Lead You as You Read the Bible.

Get into God’s word and then ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Ask Him to show you and teach you things from the Bible, and begin to realize how much fun it can be to read and learn from God’s word!

That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. – 1 Timothy 4:10 (NIV)

Think for a minute what your hope is in? Is it getting a scholarship to a good college? Is it finding a relationship with someone? What thing in your life is stopping your happiness? What thing do you feel needs to change so that you can really begin enjoying life?

Your answers to questions like those are important. They show you where you’re basing your happiness. Often, we place our happiness in having a relationship or looking forward to something in the future. The problem with putting all our happiness in those things is that things can happen.

Circumstances could change and you might not get the scholarship you were working toward. You might not end up finding that right relationship. What then? If all your happiness is tied up in events or relationships at some point you’re going to be let down.

Instead, consider focusing your happiness on something that doesn’t change, Jesus. Let Jesus be the source of your joy on a daily basis. Choose to be happy each day regardless of the circumstances around you. You can’t always control your circumstances, but you can choose to be happy. So decide to place your hope in Jesus.

Today’s Truth: Put Your Hope in Jesus

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. – Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Hopefully, you’ve been having some fun this summer. From sporting events to spending some time in the sun, or at the pool, summer can be a fun time.

While you’re having fun, make sure you take some time this summer to develop your relationship with Jesus. Summer is a great time to do that. You have some more time while you’re not in your classes, and you can spend some of that extra time getting to know Jesus better.

It can be tempting to just enjoy a little more TV, or social media time, however, spending all our free time on those things can often keep you from spending time reading your Bible or in prayer.

Part of being a disciple of Jesus involves us denying ourselves by not watching that extra movie, and following Jesus by spending time in the Word. This summer, challenge yourself to not only relax and enjoy but to spend some time learning to become a disciple of Jesus and growing in your walk with God.

Today’s Truth: Choose to become a disciple this summer and challenge yourself to spend time in God’s Word.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. – Romans 3:23 (NLT)

We can often get caught up in the busyness of life that we don’t take time to recall all the good things Jesus has done for us. Being thankful and realizing the goodness of God is really important for us, and brings us joy and fulfillment.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that we all have sinned. We’ve all lied. Each of us has done things that are not right and those sins cause us to fall short of God’s standard.

And as hard as we try to do good and be right, we can’t in our own strength. Continually we mess up and need God’s forgiveness.

That’s why knowing Jesus is so amazing. Because we couldn’t live good enough lives. We couldn’t do enough good to meet God’s standard. We deserved hell but got grace. That’s the goodness of God. It met us where we were when we least deserved it.

So today, take some time out of your busy life to thank God. Realize that you didn’t deserve what God gave you and thank Him today for His goodness in reaching out to you!

Today’s Truth: The goodness of God meets us where we least deserve it.