Today's Scripture
"Honor your father and your mother." - Exodus 20:12 NIV
Thoughts for Today
This is the fifth of the Ten Commandments and is the centerpiece of all the commandments. The first four deal with our relationship with God and the last six focus on social relationships. This one serves as a bridge from our focus on God to our focus on interpersonal relationships. Honoring one's father and mother is a model to respect God and others. Honor is learned in the home and flows into other areas of respect for various kinds of authority.
Children are to obey and honor their parents. Even though we are no longer called to obey after we enter adulthood and are living out on our own, our responsibility to honor them never ceases. If they treat us badly, we don't need to honor the wrong things they do, but we still need to honor them as our parents and show them respect.
As they age, we can continue to honor our parents by checking on them regularly, by seeing that they are lovingly cared for, by visiting them, talking to them, and especially by listening to them. It is easy to get so busy with job, friends, other family and even church that we begin to neglect our parents. Guarding against that is an important part of honoring them.
Consider this …
As you move through the various seasons of life, ask God to help you honor your parents with your time, your care, your prayers and your love.
Prayer
Father, thank you for my parents. Help me to always honor them in my thoughts, as well as my words and actions. In Jesus' name …
These thoughts were drawn from …The Ten Commandments: Applying the Foundations of Living to My Personal Life by Jimmy Ray Lee, D.Min. Knowing that there are absolutes that define moral conduct and ethical decisions is essential for believers surrounded by relativistic values. This guide helps us understand God's boundaries. It shows how the Ten Commandments apply today. It also discusses the biblical laws on which the legal codes of every civilized society are based. This guide is written in a way that helps people see the Ten Commandments in light of today's problems. Note: This curriculum was written especially for small groups, and we encourage people to use it that way. However, it can also be used effectively as a personal study for individuals or couples.
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