RELIGION AND PIETY
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Although obedience to parents is not primarily a matter of submission to authority figures, it includes a large degree of dependence. Perhaps it is more accurate .to say that obedience to the parents is primarily a respectful searching under parental guidance for the most complete self-
expression to which a young person is capable at this . moment of his development. It is the search for the delicate balance between submission and independence. In many other ways the child owes the parents respect and gratitude .. Many of these factors are culturally determined, but in their deeper meaning they center around the concept that people usually value their origin
to the degree that they value themselves. In the parent-child relationship one encounters the deepest human expression of self-extension and of personal growth. Parent and child reach out to each other in a gesture of mutual giving and receiving. In this gesture each one creates and is being created in the image of God.