Boundaries with Adult Children: Lessons from the Prodigal Son

Website design By BotEap.comAre you trying to discover your limits with your adult children? Then you will benefit from these lessons from the prodigal son. In Luke 15:11-32, a son asks for his inheritance early and then leaves his house to spend it foolishly. When he hits rock bottom and realizes that he needs to come home to survive, he returns to find his father running to meet him and later throws a party to celebrate his return. Instead of being treated like a servant, he was treated like a son.

Website design By BotEap.comWhen you have prodigal children who make foolish decisions, it’s hard to know how to deal with the many challenges you have. The story of the prodigal son gives us the following principles for setting boundaries with adult children:

Website design By BotEap.com1. The father is a good father. There is no indication that it is his fault that his son is in trouble.

Website design By BotEap.com2. The father may have empowered his son by giving him the money he paid for his wildlife; he may also have recognized that his child needed to learn about life the hard way, and as a result, he let his child go her own way to learn that lesson. Either way, the father did not offer his son more money to continue his wild life when he finally ran out of money.

Website design By BotEap.com3. The father allowed his son the dignity and the right to make his own decisions and suffer the consequences.

Website design By BotEap.com4. God continued to work in the prodigal son’s life while he was away from his father’s influence.

Website design By BotEap.com5. The father was not happy with his son’s choices, but he lived his life while his son was gone and continued to run the family business and live by his convictions.

Website design By BotEap.com6. The father left the door open for his son’s return, showing that he still had hope. We know from God’s description of his unconditional agape love that love always waits and always endures (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Website design By BotEap.com7. The father showed his son unconditional love by welcoming him home and restoring his place in the home as a son, rather than a servant, which is an allegorical description of God’s unconditional love for us. However, we know that God’s love for us includes a tough love that allows consequences (Galatians 6:7-8) and holds us accountable (Romans 14:12). It is for this reason that the prodigal father and son likely had an argument in the days following the feast over the lessons the son had learned and the consequences that would follow, some of those consequences being that the son had already spent his inheritance. and the relationship with his brother was negatively affected.

Website design By BotEap.comAs you wrestle with decisions about how to set boundaries with your adult child, consider what the story of the prodigal son teaches you about parenting.

Website design By BotEap.com1. Good parents can have prodigal children who make unwise decisions as adults.

Website design By BotEap.com2. Your boundaries should not allow your adult child to continue making unwise decisions.

Website design By BotEap.com3. You must allow your child to make his own decisions and suffer the consequences.

Website design By BotEap.com4. God is at work in your son or daughter’s life even when it doesn’t seem like it.

Website design By BotEap.com5. You need to live your life fully regardless of the problems with your child.

Website design By BotEap.com6. You can continue to hope for your child’s restoration and reconciliation.

Website design By BotEap.com7. You can have a relationship with your child that includes unconditional love and limits at the same time.