PARENTS

If your parents really want to protect you, why don't they just let you do what you want?
Isn't experience more effective than rules?

Truly wise parents create rules that make good behavior seem easy and fun and bad behavior seem hard and distasteful (as opposed to forbidden but secretly tolerated, expected, and not all that bad).  Truly wise young people take their parents' authority, God's Word, and the experience of others seriously and save themselves a lot of heartache.  These young people's experience ends up confirming the wisdom they receive in the best possible way:  by proving how good it can be to avoid sin and to embrace truth.

That's the short answer!  Scroll down for much more, including a really handy tip at the very bottom!

What the Bible says about parents
The Bible puts disobeying one's parents in the same category as murder, sexual sins, etc. (see Romans 1:18-32, esp. v. 30, and 2 Timothy 3:1-9, esp. v.2).   "Honor your father and your mother..." is one of the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20:1-21, esp. v.12), and obedience IS required (see Ephesians 6:1 and Colossians 3:20).  Under the Law of Moses, Hebrew young people were killed for willful disobedience and rebellion--just like they were killed for murder, various sexual sins, etc. (see Exodus 21:15,17 and Deuteronomy 21:18-21).  Jesus Himself made a point to repeat several of these commands and make it clear that honoring one's parents is one of God's core values--not just a law meant only for Jews and/or for a certain period of time (see Matthew 15:1-9).  The only exception to this was His demand that HE must be more important to us than any other human person, including (maybe especially!) ourselves (see Luke 14:26).  Here are a few more scriptures to check out:  Proverbs 1:8, 15:20 & 23:25;  Ephesians 6:4, Colossians 3:21, and Hebrews 12:10. 

What we also know by living in a messed-up world (see #1, above...)
1) Parents aren't perfect...and occasionally, they are flat-out wrong.
Sometimes the reason parents don't let their children try things on their own is because they have an unhealthy need to be needed, an irrational desire to control/protect them in ways they simply can't, and/or because they are simply wrong about some stuff.  Colossians 2:16-23 warns us to be careful not to let our "goodness" simply be a list of rules that are enforced by those in authority over us.  If there is a legitimate, Biblically/morally based issue at stake, sometimes the best thing to do IS to rebel against unreasonable demands, regulations, and rules.  But honestly...this doesn't happen THAT much.

2) Parents are usually more passionate about things THEY experienced.
Most "experienced" parents look back and wish like crazy that they would have trusted God's and others' wisdom.  This can be a GREAT thing if they are sane about their methods and the young people they deal with are wise enough to trust them!  It can also be a really BAD thing if they deal with their fears and concerns in extreme or even counter-productive ways.

Here's an overly-simple but very clear example:  A mom who used to get high and have sex on late-night dates passionately wants to protect her children from the legal, emotional, physical, and spiritual brokenness that lifestyle caused her.  GREAT idea, Mom!  Kudos to you...so far.  Now, to make sure her children stay safe, she creates two ironclad rules:  1) 8p Curfew, regardless (no night church, no ball games, no movies that start after 5:30p...) and 2) No dating of any kind until age 25.  Sorry, Mom...really bad ideas, there.  In fact, these will almost guarantee rebellion!

What the Bible says about experience and wisdom
Ever since the first sin (see Genesis 3, esp. v.6), people have leaned toward personal experience as a more reliable source of wisdom than simple trust.  While many are willing to admit that others' experience may produce wisdom for them (see Job 12:12), the temptation to try things ourselves and make our own mistakes remains strong.  Every bit of God's unconditional love and grace allows for this, but His ideal remains clear (see Proverbs 1:7, 8:11, 9:10, 15:33, 21:30 & esp. 28:26).  In fact, several passages indicate that God deliberately messes with people's plans and philosophies unless they start with what He has to say about it all.  A classic passage like this is 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and this is yet another issue where Galatians 5:6-9.applies.

HANDY TIP:  Parents respond best to RARE and RESPECTFUL questions to their authority.
In other words, if your general, go-to, everyday, "this is who I am" attitude is respectful, your parents are MUCH more likely to listen to a legitimate question/issue you have with one of their rules.  (Your tone of voice and body language--in other words, HOW you bring the issue up--also makes a difference.  Make sure you show respect even while disagreeing!)  The opposite is also true:  even if you are right and your parents are clearly, Biblically wrong on a certain point, expect to get nowhere if you generally rebel about almost everything and/or come at them with anger, pride, and disrespect!