Honor Your Father and Mother

Dearest Brothers and Sisters

I heard some news which shattered my heart into pieces. An elderly woman from Southall jumped into the canal near Southall Broadway. I do not know much about the full extent of this story, but I have been told that her children could not be bothered to take care of her and left her no choice but to commit suicide. I am not going to discuss an issue of people committing suicide today. I have been asking myself why she had to die like this when she had her own adult children capable of looking after her?

Agree or not: parents are the most important people in our lives after God. They brought us into this world, provided whatever we needed and took care of us. I am sure we all have had the best childhood thanks to our parents. They protect us from the heat of this world, so why should they get something in return which they do not deserve? Are we not supposed to respect, honour and love our parents? Does God desire us to be careless?

God gave us Ten Commandments to obey. So let’s consider a commandment which clearly states what we must do towards our parents.

“Honor your father and your mother” – Exodus 20:12    

God has commanded us all to honor our parents. If you obey God’s will then He will do wonders in your life. Guys let us listen to our parents, be obedient, be respectful because they will always want good things for us. Consider what Jesus would want us to do?

“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent me.”- John 14: 24

Jesus wants us to be righteous and we can only be like Him when we read the word of God and obey His commands. We must abide by the word of God to bear fruits of the spirit such as love, peace, kindness and gentleness and if we truly love Jesus we will love our fathers and mothers.

King Solomon inspired by a Holy God wrote the book of Proverbs. “King Solomon” full of God’s wisdom teaches us to be obedient sons. Why would he want us to consider our parents? Presumably, most of us have been silly towards our parents. Sometimes we say things without any knowledge of the consequences. Our careless speech may hurt their feelings so we must be cautious. They have lived most of their life before we were even born. They are much wiser than us.

“A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.” – Proverbs 10:1

A mother, who takes care of her child through pregnancy, birth and childhood with great efforts who deserves nothing but our appreciation. But a foolish son gives her sorrow, pain, tears to her heart.

A father, who worked his socks off to fulfill his children’s demands all his life, provides the shelter, clothes, school, books, etc. We definitely owe him big time. He is the head of the house and all he wants from us is to be “wise” because that will bring him joy and satisfaction.

Just imagine when someone shows any kind of love towards us; it flatters us. Imagine how much joy our parents will receive when we show genuine love towards them. You don’t have to buy them expensive gifts to make them happy; but acts of kindness, gentle behavior and patience will do the job as it written in the book of Proverbs.

In Ephesians 6:1 Paul tells children to obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right. This is right because it pleases God. Obeying means giving them honor, listening to their teaching and applying it in our lives.  

“The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.” – Proverb 23:24

Therefore, let us be wise and consider our parents. Let our friends (both in and out body of Christ) know that God demands us all to “Honor our parents”.

In Christ Our Beautiful Savior

Tags: 10 commandments, father, mother

Category: Latest Article