Exodus 20:12 NIV – ‘Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you’
Ephesians 6:1 NIV – ‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.’
God instructs us to obey and honor our parents, however this can be extremely difficult if our parents hurt us. That hurt can make us feel very distant from them. The desire to obey and cultivate a healthy relationship with them vanishes in what seems like an instant.
In times like this, it is important for us to remember that our parents are human beings. They are virtually incapable of being perfect parents in the same way that God is the perfect Father to us. We can’t expect our parents to be like the parents we see on television or in other households. Instead, we should love, honor, and obey them because of our love for God, not our own, often skewed, judgement of how well our parents treat us.
We must also remember that our adversary, Satan, is on a mission to destroy families. God has brought us together with our family members to bear fruits of love, joy and wisdom (Proverbs 15:20, 1:8; 1 John 4:20-21) in one another. When we disobey and dishonor our parents, we are not walking in Christ-like love. In fact, it is playing right into the enemy’s plan for destruction.
Depend on God to help you be a Christ-like son or daughter to your parents. No matter what mistakes they make, we ought to honor and obey them in accordance with God’s Word. We should also submit our relationships with our parents to God in prayer, that He may bind us together in love and help us all to be more Christ-like to one another.
PRAYER: Lord help me to show grace and love to my parents. Remind me of the grace and mercy you show me and help me to remember that like me, they are humans who make mistakes but I am still called to honor, obey, and love them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.