My mother very recently and very suddenly passed away, and I found myself asking a very important question: Did I honor my mother?
I didn't throw any parades for her or tout her parenting skills to all my friends. I disobeyed her on occasion, and I’m sure I’ve done plenty of things she would be ashamed of. If she was a scholar, it might be easy to honor her, but what if she was just ordinary? What if she was a drug lord or crime boss, then what?
If we use the worldly definition of “honor” (to lift up or make proud), we could find ourselves subject to our parents’ fickle and/or sinful standards. We could end up celebrating or adopting sin in an attempt to honor our parents; for instance lying about or hiding our parents’ destructive behavior, or serving other gods as we seek power, prestige, fame, or fortune in order to make our parents proud.
“Honor thy father and mother” is a commandment of God, and it must be taken in the context of God. God does want us to heed our parents and make them proud…by adhering to His word according to the teachings of our parents.
Ephesians 6:1-4 spells it out plainly: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord..”
So, parents are called to raise their children according to the word of God, so that their children can grow up and honor their parents through a love for God as He intended.
Bless her and keep her Lord in all your grace and mercy; may I honor her faithfully as long as I draw breath.
Mom
April 22, 1953 – June 11, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Honor Thy Father and Mother
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
"in the Lord"...I never understand this. are you supposed to, i mean it says to obey them in the Lord. does this mean that if they are believers you're supposed to obey them but if they're not then you don't have to? and at all times you must honor them? because, even though she wasn't my mom she was my mother-in-law and i certainly had a hard time giving her any honor let alone taking anything she said as something that i should obey. did i sin because i could find nothing to respect about her? i struggle with that a lot.
I think I focused the post on our parental obligation to our children, but your question focuses on our obligation to our parents.
First, our parents have a holy obligation to bring us up in the ways of the Lord. If they fail to obey God in this, that is not an excuse to rebel against them or shame them? If our parents command us to commit evil while the one true God commands us to resist evil, how does our obedience to God dishonor them? If our parents are shamed by our obedience to God, woe unto our parents.
God said obey Him first above all, and then He said obey your parents in the Lord; their authority will never trump His authority.
i think one way we can honor our parents is by focusing on the good in them and not the bad. not holding a grudge for their less than ideal displays of parenting skills. i think you did a tremendous job at this (from what i know of the situtaion anyway). i remember being impressed on more than one occasion at the unconditional love you showed her.
My mom never changed her lifestyle. She never told me she was sorry. I didn’t focus on the good in her rather than the bad. I took all of her, good and bad alike, and I prayed to God to give me faith to love and forgive her according to His will. Only God knows how much I honored my mother.
Post a Comment