Relationships. You cannot live life without them. You will have relationships with friends, co-workers and family. But the foundation for all of our human relationships starts on the day we are born. Our parents.
“Honor your father and mother…” Exodus 20:12
How we treat our parents, and more importantly how we honor them speaks volumes about our lives and provides the building blocks for how we interact not only with other people, but our relationship with God as well. So how do we honor our parents?
We need to honor our parents with obedience. In Luke chapter 2 we read the story of Jesus and His parents journey to the temple for the Feast of the Passover. After they left, Jesus stayed behind, without their knowledge. Mary and Joseph searched for three days until they found Him in the temple and began their journey again. The great lesson to draw from this is found in Luke 2:51:
“Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.”
Jesus was not in the wrong here. He simply wanted to be in His Father’s house. Nonetheless He obeyed His parents. And if even Jesus honored his parents authority with obedience, how can we do any less? No matter how much we think we are right, and our parents wrong, we must trust in their leadership. They may be right, they may be wrong, but obedience to our parents is always something God blesses.
Honor also comes to our parents by our actions and our life. This is a big one, because it also ties in to how we honor God and how we live as witnesses to His name. Trust me when I say this, your parents do not require perfection from you. All that they desire is that you give your best effort in all that you do. We honor them by our attitudes at school. We honor them by how we treat our siblings, and we honor them by how we represent our families outside the home.
One of the most amazing ways that we can honor our parents is by honoring God. Whats amazing about this is that if we start out by honoring God, than everything else will fall into its proper place. God and your parents want the same thing for your life: to live a consistent life that responds biblically to every situation. In other words, a holy life that honors God, also brings honor to your parents.
Resonant Love 