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Honor Father and Mother
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
One of my favorite passages of scripture is in the Book of Jude. Jude says he sat down to write about our common salvation, but the Spirit moved him to do otherwise. I like this passage because it shows me God at work authoring and preserving His word for us. God honors His word. He must think Man is very special as well to have gone to such lengths to leave it to us.
I set out this week to write a devotion concerning the path to God. Actually, I did write it later, but I laid it aside to say something else entirely. I don’t claim Jude’s magnitude of inspiration, but I believe God had a had in this decision.
I want to look at God’s word about a very special relationship; our relationship to our parents. I have this bad habit of thinking many things are “common knowledge”. Although, I’ve been repeatedly shown there is no such thing, I still find myself clinging to the misconception and scratching my head in wonder. I’m need constant reminding “there is not in every man that knowledge”.
Honor thy father and thy mother. I thought it pretty basic stuff, especially here in the Bible Belt. Ha! Wrong again! This week alone I was confronted by two examples the commandment needs refreshing in the minds of men. I’m not talking here about teenagers or twenty somethings. I’m talking about people of my generation who refuse to be burdened with the care of their parents.
Both my parents died young, so maybe, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ve never been faced with the prospect of changing my parents diapers, so just excuse the heck out of me if I rant over much about how our parents deserve our care. I am sure that, were they alive, they would die of embarrassment at the very idea. However, I find times when I would be willing to do so for another day or two with them.
Let me just add that I know that the task of caring for ill, aging parents can become more than an individual or even a family can provide. We are not, any of us, equipped to provide that kind of care 24/7 indefinitely. That’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about children unwilling to take their 95 year old mother home for the Thanksgiving weekend because she was too weak to walk and lives by herself.
Can she not stay a night or two regaining her strength with her able bodied children?
I’m talking about children desperately trying to find someone, anyone, to care for 88 year old dad because they are stressed and busy and dad is confused. It is true mom was dying at the time, but she and dad had been married more than 60 years.
What about dad? Isn’t dad maybe just a little distraught too?
I hope to God someone else sees something fundamentally wrong here. If no one else, I pray my children see.
Honor thy father and thy mother -- that’s the command of God. It’s not a request; a suggestion; or a whim. It’s God’s command.
I’m sure the centurion who understood the authority of Jesus would be able to tell you that the request, suggestion or whim of a superior is also an order, but “there is not in every man that knowledge”.
Honoring father and mother, like loving your neighbor, does not mean you have to like them all the time or agree with the things they say and do. It doesn’t mean you can’t slip down in the seat when dad’s cussing at his fellow motorists and gesturing wildly out the driver’s side window.
It means desiring God’s best and providing your best even during such trying times. It means putting them first; going two miles instead of one; giving them your coat and your cloak; strengthening the weak knees and holding up the hands that hang down.
Still, if that is not incentive enough; consider that your children may, one day, be deciding If, When and Which, nursing home you will live in.
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