Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Honor Your Father and Mother



The WORD today (See http://usccb.org/bible/readings/103112.cfm) reminds me to honor my parents.

Honor your father and mother.
This is the first commandment with a promise,
that it may go well with you
and that you may have a long life on earth.

Hindi lahat tayo magiging magulang pero lahat tayo ay naging anak (Not all will become parents but we were all children once). This is a line from one Filipino movie which shows the reality that not all will become parents, but we are all children of our parents. It shows that everyone can relate to God’s message about honouring our parents

This is the fourth commandment, and the first commandment pertaining to other people – the first three about God. It also says that this carries a promise – having a long life on earth.  Thus, we can see how important, serious, and rewarding this commandment is.

Our parents are the first representation of Jesus on earth. They were the ones who first showed us God’s love. I believe this is the reason why God asks us to honor them, and why it carries a great promise.

Honoring our parents is more than just physical respect. It starts from the inside. We should respect our parents, especially when we do not agree with them. Age, experience, and accomplishments do not give us permission to argue with our parents – thinking that we know more, or we are more updated, or we are better than them. When God says we honor our parents, we honor them, period.

How is my relationship with my parents? Do I honor them? How? How do I show I love them? Do I insist that I am right when I feel I am, or do I humbly submit to them and honor them, even if, and especially if I do not agree with them? What can I do today to show my love for them?

Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for reminding me how important it is to honor my parents. Lord, I know they are not perfect, and they don’t always act the way we would want them to, or they don’t always meet our expectations of “ideal” parents, but Lord, you gave them to me. Help me to always humble myself and show my respect and love for them, just as you did your earthly parents. You used them mightily to take care of me and to show me and make me feel how much you love me, even if oftentimes I do not properly appreciate them. Lord, you know deep inside how much I love my parents. Help me to become more expressive of that love, and help me to love them back, and to honor them, no matter what. Amen.

Blessed Day!

In Christ,
-g-

1 comment:

  1. it our duty to respect and support our parents before they die .it is way to heaven.very good message conveyed by this article good effort made by author appreciate your effort good concept discussed by author may Allah give you more time to clear more concepts like this. May Allah give you more strength to write articles like this article has got a place in my heart. in these days Muslims has gone away from the true teachings of Islam. the authors like you can play a good role to create a society which would be based on the true teachings of Islam. i really appreciate you.
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