Welcome welcome welcome to the salt and light commission once again. If you are a follower welcome again and if you have just stumbled upon this blog for the first time I welcome you as well. It’s a great place to find answers to many questions that you might have on the way to building a stronger faith in God.
As you might have guessed from the title the topic today will be honoring your mother and father. How to Honor Your Father and Mother? It’s not just a nice things to do, it’s a command.
I don’t why in today’s culture more and more people tend to not honor their parents. Why not? Is it not written in the good book to do so. In fact it is one of the ten commandments. And even more so, it is the only one of the ten that actually has a promise from God attached to it. Let’s look at it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12
Here’s how it breaks down: The Command – Honor your father and your mother. Here is the promise – so that you many live long in the land the lord your god is giving you.
So the promise is to live long. And it is as simple as honoring your parents. The movies and books are filled with adventures of the protagonist and the antagonist searching for a way to live long lives, even immortality ( I will post on immortality in the coming days). But forget the movies for a second, even in, real life modern medicine and science has people living longer and healthier. We as a people are steadily advancing to make the human being live virtually a very long time and if possible forever.
Now, before I go on, honoring your parents does not mean you agree with everything they think. You can have disagreements and still honor your parents. When you were a little child, you probably agreed with everything your parents told you. As a teenager, you disagreed with everything your parents thought or did. Now there comes a time when you and your parents are adults at the same time, and that time wisdom has set it, or it should, and you have a healthy balance of things you agree on and things you don’t. When you do disagree you don’t yell, fuss and fight your point across. At some point your point you are trying to defend is drowned out by the loud voices. You stop listening to the other person and nothing is accomplished. You are barely listening to yourself, because you can’t hear yourself over the yelling. So a better way is to disagree in love. Like Jesus taught. You can have a civil discussion and not dishonor your parents in the process. And why wouldn’t you want to do it that way? Voices are not strained and feelings are not hurt.
But you don’t have to travel to far a way lands or gain a doctorate in medicine or bio engineering to figure out how to have a long life. It’s as simple as opening the Holy Bible and flipping the page to Exodus 20:12. This is a promise God has made. He didn’t have to attach a promise to this command. But I think He wanted to show the deep importance it is to honor the ones whom raised you. The ones whom changed your diaper, the ones whom fed you, the ones whom put a roof over your head, the ones whom helped you to take your first steps, and placed a bandage on your knee when you fell from your bike. These parents and all parents should be honored. Yes, even the ones whom fell short.
Life is so short, why not take the way that leads to long life. Have as much time as possible in the place God has given you. Didn’t Jesus say He has come to give us life more abundant. He wants you to live long lives. He has already given you the formula.
The world today seems to be anti-parent. The news is filled with offspring that have killed their parents, because they didn’t get their way. Parents being divorced by the children. Children running away from home. Parents being emotionally and physically abused by the children. In the home, children talking back to the parents. Why? What does it accomplish? Does it make one feel grown up? I know for me personally, if I ever raised my voice towards my parents…well let’s just say I wouldn’t be around to write this post to you. Comment below right now if you can relate.
So how does one show honor to their parents? Well is a birthday of one or both coming up? Buy them a present or two. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day is also a good time to give a gift or flowers to you mother. Christmas is a great time also. And its not just buying gifts, you could call them on the regular or a short text every so often. You could even go visit them. Take them out for a day or night out. Go to breakfast or lunch. It doesn’t even have to be a special day. A random weekend would do. Have talks and don’t argue when you disagree. There many ways to show honor, but the main point is show them love.
Now you might be saying, well my parents are no longer among the living, what do I do? It’s not easy, that’s why it is important to honor them while they are alive, but even though the body is a shell and the spirit is gone and hopefully with the Lord, you can still honor them, by speaking well about them and visiting the grave. Dressing the grave with flowers and maintaining their resting place. All this is honoring your parents even in death.
Now some of my readers may not have had very nice parents to put it mildly, To them I say, you can still honor/love them. Don’t repay evil for evil or the cycle of abuse will never end. Rather, do as the bible says, to love those that hate you. Doing this is like dumping hot coals on their head…they can’t understand it. This could perhaps change their attitude. Martin Luther King Jr., said Love is the only thing powerful enough that can change an enemy to a friend.
It’s important to have your parents in a place of honor, after all your children are watching how you treat your parents and they will mimic the behavior that is displayed. Comment below right now, if the way you treat your parents is the way you want your children to treat you when they get older. I want to hear from you on this one. Well that’s it for now, but remember to honor is a fancy word that means to show love. There is no time like the present, because life is short, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be LONGER.
After you read this post call your parents right now, and tell them that you love them…go ahead. You might even surprise them…in addition you are adding seconds to your life. Honor your father and your mother.
This is salt and light commission, and you are the salt and light of the world…be blessed.
