HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk.com. 

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

Proverbs 1:1-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever looked closely at the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), the ten primary orders that God provided to His people Israel via his servant Moses?

Of course, His commandments are equally applicable to us today and if you examine them closely, you will find they have two distinct groupings.

The first four commandments deal with how we are to relate to God while the final six deal with how we are to relate to one another.

As we look at how to relate to one another, note the first commandment in this list of six:

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

Honor your father and mother.

This is the command that comes before do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, and do not covet what another has.

That might seem amazing but it really isn’t when you really think about it. Because if we live in a way that seeks to honor our parents, the ones who brought us into the world and raised us, then we will not consider murder or adultery or thievery or slander or a covetous attitude. Any of these acts would serve to dishonor those who cared for us and reared us to become good and proper citizens and a conscientious rejection of anything that would disappoint our parents will lead us from heinous, sinful behavior.

Keep this in mind about your parents:

1. They have lived a life you have yet to live.

2. They have traveled a path you have yet to walk.

3. They have sinned and made mistakes and have many lessons learned to share.

Experience counts and we should pay attention. Remember that if we don’t learn from the past, and that includes listening to our parents counsel often enhanced by those life lessons learned, then we are doomed to repeat those mistakes.

And if you think you’re excused from this command because your parents were dishonorable themselves and think that justifies you doing the same in your life, consider that we all have a Heavenly Father in God who is actually more of our Father than our worldly Dad. And so, when we talk about honoring our father, we’re also talking about God our Father, capital “F”.

So honoring your father (worldly and heavenly) and your mother can lead you to living in righteousness and away from transgression but we also gain something else. Look at our passage for today from Proverbs, chapter 1:

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

Friends, when we respectfully and gladly receive the instruction and teaching of our parents, and especially godly parents, we will find ourselves blessed and victorious in learning how to live with a symbolic garland on our head and the prestige of a chain around our necks. We are adorned and set apart from a world that chases after knowledge and understanding in all the wrong places, often shunning the guidance of their fathers and mothers in exchange for the direction of others.

And as we wear our adornment proudly, putting the wise instruction and wisdom of our father and mother into practice, then we will let others see the astuteness and intelligence we possess. They will in turn wonder where we became so sensible and prudent and in-the-know.

When they do, we have the opportunity to proudly proclaim, “I learned what I know from my Dad and Mom”, a Dad and Mom who you sought to honor through respecting them and listening to their teaching, actions that led to your adornment, ornamentation, and beautification.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com