Honor Your Father and Mother
“Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12
Are you familiar with the Ten Commandments? Exodus, the second book of the Bible recounts the well-known story. Moses went up onto Mount Sinai and God told him very important laws Christians are to abide by. Moses inscribed them on two stone tablets so he could take them back to the people. These laws have stood the test of time, which is why over 2,000 years later, we are still talking about them. How amazing is that?
Picture God telling Moses his “top ten list” of important rules He wants His children obey. Obviously, it’s a pretty big deal. So we had better listen! He only gave us ten. (If I were God, I am sure I could have come up with more than just ten!) Number four on His list is to HONOR OUR FATHER AND MOTHER. Period.
Notice there are no asterisks after it. No footnotes. No subcategories. No parenthesis. Plain and simple, we are to honor our father and mother. It doesn’t say we are to honor them IF we agree with their decisions. It doesn’t even say to honor them only IF they are Christians. We are to honor them. Period. Did you know that honoring our parents brings honor and glory to the gospel of Jesus Christ? And anything done by the grace of God for the glory of God is a good work.
I have met with so many young girls over the years that tell me they don’t have a good relationship with their parents. Albeit sad, it is all too often true. And in our flesh, it is hard to want to honor our parents when we have discord in the relationship.
Remember this, the quickest way to change your heart towards someone is to pray for them! So pray for your parents! And I don’t mean pray that they would drop the punishment they just handed you. I mean really pray for them. And in doing so, you will find it is much easier to honor them.