Honor Parents

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."  Exodus 20: 12.

"Children, obey your parents in the LORD, for this is right.  Honor your father and mother... which is the first commandment with a promise... that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on this earth."  Ephesians 6: 1-3.

I routinely encourage my students to honor their parents.  Simply obeying isn't enough.  When a child honors their parent(s), they obey them with a good attitude.  They show initiative and do what needs to be done without being asked.  They consider how hurtful a poor decision would be to their parent(s) and their desire to honor their parents helps them to avoid poor decisions.

When a student is living in rebellion to their parent(s), they will seek to make poor decisions to hurt their parent(s)... to show them that they are not in control.  The problem is, often these decisions are destructive, they hurt their parents and themselves.  That is why the command comes with a promise.

When a student is in rebellion with their parents, there is unresolved conflict.  It is so important, for both parents and students, to reconcile when someone's feeling have been hurt.  This is where forgiveness and confession come in.  As people, two things are always are going to need to happen to maintain a relationship, they are confession and forgiveness.

I try to teach my students how to confess and forgive.  This is something I need God's help to do.

Day 68