Article January 20, 1968 Issue

How Are Your Relationships?

[For young teens]

NANCY S. NELSON

Few teen-agers have perfect relationships with their parents. One says: ''I can talk to my father, but my mother and I always argue. She wants to run my life too much." Another admits he feels like a stranger in his own home. "Nobody understands the way I feel about anything; nobody ever listens to my point of view."

We all have to make concessions, to adjust in various ways to the differing demands and opinions of those with whom we live. Every friendship, every marriage, every business association, is composed of hundreds of concessions—the unselfish giving up of something we want in favor of pleasing the other person. Giving up the false belief that conflicts are a natural part of family life is the best concession a teen-ager can make, one that will give him back his self-respect and please his parents no end.

The only perfect relationship that exists is between God and His children. When tempers are tried and family affection is cracking under the strain of strong differences of opinion, our understanding of God's unchanging harmonious relationship with us brings healing.

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