This past Sunday, I was teaching the kids on the Joy of the Lord. Somehow, in our discussion, honor snuck in. Especially Honoring mom and dad and those who are parenting us. Today, I began to really ponder on the idea of Honor. I really started to question, “How many of us are cheating ourselves of blessings because we are not living a life of honor, especially towards our parents?”
My generation, was generation “x”. I always found this so odd because from algebra, we know x = unknown. I was told by a well meaning teacher that x simply meant they had no idea what to expect from us. The baby boomers had radically surpassed the generations prior. We were children of a lot of hippies so they had no clue what to expect from us. Looking back on that high school class of 25, I realize now that may have been a less than wise place to share. Words really can shape our realities.
Back to honor… The general feel (not all, but a lot) of my peers in my generation was that Honor was an obsolete idea of our grandparents. Because of the choices a lot of our parents made during their adolescence, somehow they did not deserve honor.. This is where my question came in. Maybe we are robbing ourselves of many blessing because we have chosen to defy this principle … Many of us unknowingly.
Deuteronomy 5:16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you in the land which the Lord your God gives you."
The idea of this law that Moses received from God was that if we choose to Honor our parents as well as those who have been “parents” in our lives, we will be blessed with a long life and things will go well for us..
My testimony:
At 5 my mom and dad split up… This tore my world apart because my dad was my whole world at that time… My mom (knowing this) did everything in her power to protect my image of my dad, to a fault. By the time I was a teenager rebellion had manifested past my heart and moved into all my actions. Disrespect was my middle name. Somewhere along the way, I began to believe the lie that honor did not apply to my generation… I was hanging out with tons of people who had no idea how to honor mom and dad, because there was no honor in their family.
Daddy God was faithful…. While things were not “well” with me AT ALL.. He was still protecting me and guiding me. Through a series of bad choices, fast forward 19 years and I am back with my mom (my family andI). Daddy God is now re-defining my relationship with my mom, teaching me how to really be her daughter, not her partner , and how to Honor her.. It has been a process… But I thank God everyday that I am being honored by Him to have this opportunity to know my mom more … It is priceless. From the little things like taking out the trash, to the big things like raising the kids and finances, I am learning that Honor is a form of love that says “I am listening to you and I care about what is important to you” It says..” You matter to me and I value who you are and how Daddy God made you” Honor shows the recipient that you are aware that they are a valid person with a great role in this world… even the little ones need honor, but that’s another message another day… J
I asked my kiddos in the class some simple questions:
Me: ” Did He say honor when they are nice?”
Kids: “no”
Me: “ Did He say when they treat you good and buy you nice stuff?”
Kids (looking around a bit, finally) “no”
Me: “did he say if they yell at you or are really mean you don’t have to honor them?”
Kids (after long pause, cause some of them have hard stuff at home) “No”
I think they got it!! Then they all shared ways to Honor and ways to share Joy.
I reassured them, Like I am reassuring us all, this promise is more about us, and less about our parents. God did not say “And parents honor your kids and you will have __________”
No, this command is specifically to us as children…
My thoughts are that this was a blueprint for us… If we could master this idea with our earthly parents and how changing they can be sometimes, then it will be a piece of cake with an amazing Father who loves us unconditionally, is unchanging, and is passionately pursuing us. And the bonus if we get this pattern down with earthly mom and dad? A life that is long and things go well with us!
I love you Mom and I honor you J
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