HONOR
Exodus 20: 12 “Honour
thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee.”
As a teenager, I
was upset because my mom wouldn’t buy me school clothes at the expensive stores
like the other girls’ moms did. Instead, my mom took me to the stores and let
me pick out the dresses I liked best, and she would make them for me. We lived
on the edge of an affluent community, and I always felt like an outsider. What
I didn’t know was that my parents chose our place to live because they could send
their kids to good schools without having to pay the higher prices of homes in
a community they couldn’t afford. My parents were more interested in our education
than our material accumulations, but at the time I didn’t know it.
Recently I
discovered that a coworker, 30 years old, doesn’t know how to put words in
alphabetical order. I asked if he’d been taught in school and found out that he
had not. I was shocked—naïve, I guess. He’s a smart man and a good worker, but
never learned to alphabetize. How many other things aren’t being taught in
school? I guess I just figured that everyone who went to public school learned
the same things I did. Wow, was I wrong! I feel a little stupid about how blind I was, but
this new awareness made me smarter and more compassionate.
The “alphabet
incident” also woke me up to something God wanted to show me about my parents,
and probably many other parents as well: They don’t always tell their kids why
they make the decisions they do, but for the most part, they try to do their
best for us. Like the Bible says, we need to honor them, no matter what.
At the least,
they gave us life. That little sperm was the strongest one, and our mothers took
us from that conception day all the way through to delivery. And here we are,
alive, thinking, breathing, and hopefully honoring the God who created life
itself.
There are so many
reasons to honor our parents. One reason is what God says in Exodus: “That thy
days may be long upon the land.” When we realize some of what our parents did and
still do for us, and we know what we do and have done for our children, we have
to recognize patience and perseverance make for a rich and complex life. We can
live a good long life because we understand that things take time.
And most of all, we
recognize that faith and trust in the Lord are essential to long life and
peace.
If people don’t
honor their parents, they are missing a big life lesson. If people decide to do
what the Bible says, and honor them even if they don’t really want to, then God
will open their eyes as to why it’s important.
And for those of
you whose children don’t honor you now, don’t worry, one day they will.
Love, Carolyn
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