Exodus Chapter 20:12
Honor Your Father And Mother.
Commandment #5:
I’m going to take two days on. This is the only commandment followed by a promise which is having your “days prolonged.”
But today I want to focus on the word HONOR. This word is often used for royalty. To honor someone is to have an attitude or heart that says, they are better than me. It means to lavish upon them much love and respect so that they feel valued, respected, and loved. They feel special and important.
Wow! How many people really do that with their parents? Or how many parents “deserve” such treatment? Wait a minute, honoring a parent has nothing to do with “deserving of.” Seriously, how many of us “deserve” God’s love and forgiveness? Yet God gives his love and His forgiveness is always available.
So why should we give honor to someone we feel doesn’t deserve it? Our lavished love and forgiveness, or respect, or appreciation is a testimony of our faith in Christ. It’s a way of pointing our “undeserving parent” to the Lord so hopefully their lives can be transformed for him. Shouldn’t that be our goal? We should want to see our parents know the Lord and be drawn closer to the Lord. How we treat them is an example of Christ. It doesn’t mean you don’t have differences or disputes or disagreements. It doesn’t mean you can’t voice your opinion or disagreements, but it does mean when all is said and done, you keep loving and keep forgiving and keep honoring them.
This may not make sense to a lot of people but it’s powerful and effective. It helps take stress off from yourself which can shorten your life. It gives freedom to your soul.
I’ll talk about freedom and prolonged days tomorrow.
