Parents....and Children

Dear Children of Godly Parents,
Believe it or not, your father/mother/parents love you. LOTS. Sometimes in our selfish blindness (this is one of those TBH posts...) we seem to forget this fundamental fact and think that they are just there to tell us what to do and what not to do. "Tidy your room." "Wash your socks." "Chew with your mouth shut." And in our mind it's: "Blah, blah, blah..." And we obey automatically. Well most of the time.
Have you ever heard that our parents are to be a parable to us of God? Of how God relates to His children as their Heavenly Father? I heard it somewhere and it pops into my head at times. On Sabbath, our Sabbath-School group were discussing the question of how long children should be under our parent's authority and I was reminded of the parallel once more. But this time, I saw it in a new light.
We are told that our families are to be types of heaven and if our parents are to relate to us as God relates to His children, does that mean that as children we are to relate to our parents as we relate to God. Quite a radical thought. Of course, our parents, unlike God, make mistakes and in this way there is nothing like our relationship with God. God doesn't make mistakes. At all.
But, like God, our parents sacrifice their best and most precious years on our behalf. They forget their pleasures and wants and comforts and bestow their finest treasures on us. The treasure us. They love us, guide us, cry over us, rejoice over us. Even though they don't always get it right, they want the very best for us and in all that seemingly nagging, they are just trying to shape our characters to imbed in us a tiny fragment of the character of Christ.
What does this mean to us? How should it change our relation to our parents? Our parents deserve the same attributes that we devote to our heavenly Father. Love, respect, gratefulness, trust, appreciation, adoration, obedience. The same constant effort to grow closer, the same seeking of their advice and opinion, the same love and thankfulness for all they do for us.
This is a wake up call for me. Do I appreciate my parents as much as I should? Do I respect and seek their advice as I do God's (when it is in harmony with God's will)? Do I love them? Really love them? I'd have to answer no.

"Parents are entitled to a degree of love and respect which is due to no other person. God Himself, who has placed upon them a responsibility for the souls committed to their charge, has ordained that during the earlier years of life parents shall stand in the place of God to their children. And he who rejects the rightful authority of his parents is rejecting the authority of God. The fifth commandment requires children not only to yield respect, submission, and obedience to their parents, but also to give them love and tenderness, to lighten their cares, to guard their reputation, and to succor and comfort them in old age." PP 308