Scriptures: Ephesians 6:1-4, Psalm 58:3, Proverbs 22:6, 4:10, 16:21, 13:24, Colossians 3:20-21, Hebrews 12:6

Every pastor who preaches on parenting at some point feels inadequate. Whether talking about toddlers or teenagers, there has never been a larger "generation gap" than there is today. Everything has changed radically from the time most of us were children.Music has changed. We used to listen on records or tapes and now it’s all a digital format. Dress has changed.Where we used to patch holes in blue jeans, kids now cut holes out of blue jeans. Communication has changed. Today’s generation likely never experienced the need to stop to find a phone and make a call—we all carry a phone wherever we go. And for many that phone is also a computer that has greater computational power in your pocket than all of NASA when they sent men to the moon in 1969.

Bridging the generation gap is tough, but it is not impossible.There are some truths in God’s Word that can build a bridge between parents and children that will weather any storm. In this message, Dr. Merritt reminds both parents and children that it takes two to build a bridge. You are either building bridges to one another or you are burning them. God has shared with us in His word in a very simple fashion what every parent ought to be teaching his children.

"Children must understand, for the time that they are young, that obedience is not an option, it is an obligation. Now they may not like you from time to time because you make them obey, but the key teaching here is that even though as a parent you may desire your kids will like you, you must first demand that your kids respect you. Citizens should obey police officers because it pleases the Lord.Employees should obey their boss because it pleases the Lord.Students should obey their teachers because it pleases the Lord. Children, when you rebel against your parents, you are really rebelling against God." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: parenting, child-rearing, nurturing, father, mother, son, daughter, teenager, baby, message, respect, right, wrong, obedience, correctness, relativism, values, responsibility, honor, promise, Jay Kesler, Aesop's Fables, discipline, direct, Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z, godly, guarantee, decision