Every human wants to be understood, especially young people. It can be very frustrating, if your parents seem uninterested in things that are important to you or in things you love.

 This causes a gap or rift between young people and their parents in many homes. Let’s examine what causes this.

 1. Power versus Gray-Headedness

Pro. 20:29 says, “The beauty of young men is their power.” This strength or power of the youth can be the foundation of all sorts of conflict between you and your parents. It further states, “And the splendor of old men is their gray headedness.” The gray-headedness here means your parents are older and view life differently. This is born out of the experiences of life they have gone through which will have affected their idealism; they just may not share your view over certain matters.

 It is therefore obvious that between one’s youthful “power” and one’s parents’ “gray headedness” may lay a big gap. But before you can expect your parents to understand you, you must first try to understand them.

 Here some steps towards understanding your parents.

1. Your Parents are Human Too.

A big step toward understanding your parents is for you to recognize that your parents are simply humans with similar feelings like yours. For example, some parents feel very insecure about their ability to rear you properly or feeling overwhelmed by the moral dangers and daily temptations you face. This can make them to overreact to things at times.

 2. Show a Personal Interest in Your Parents

Phillip. 2:4 states, “Keeping an eye, not on personal interest upon just your own matters, but also in personal interest upon those of the others.” Ask your parents questions about their teenage life. Be concerned about their needs and worries. Show empathy when they are going through challenges. By doing this, you are closing the gap and then you can now work on getting your parents to understand you.

 3. Make Time to Chat With Your Parents

Taking time out to talk with your parents also brings you closer to them and will help them understand you as well. When you communicate with your parents you will be able to express your feelings, ideology, perception and concept about life and through that you both discover each other.

Written by E.Samuel [Ghana]