December 8: THE FIFTH OF TEN

As we come to commandment five we turn to a different emphasis: Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you”. The first 4 commands concern your walk with God and keeping an open fellowship with God. The last 6 commands concern your walk with man and keeping an open fellowship with man.
This command strikes at the most basic of earthly relationships, a relationship that would seem to be easy to maintain and be fruitful. Always value the source of your very life. Respect them because they brought you into the world; you owe your very existence to them. They should be loved and supported and obeyed. Unless it is an abnormal situation, these are the folks who care the most about your well-being. They make the rules for us that show us the limits of discipline in our growing up and maturing. Children often scream in frustration, “you don’t want me to have any fun” when just the opposite is true. Parents know that without discipline there is no true happiness in life.
I am not unaware of the great amount of child abuse in our generation. I cannot understand how parents could treat cruelly the children that God has entrusted to them. The sickest form of cruelty is sexual abuse and many are being scarred for life. Any person being tempted to “use and abuse” their own flesh and blood should immediately go to a Psychiatrist for help.
An orderly society has an expectation that the children will care for the parents as they age and become dependent. This can be the climax of a whole lifetime of developing closeness. It is a beautiful picture, indeed, to see parents and children and grand-children in a on-going caring for one another and helping one another. Each generation has it’s own contribution to each other.
A challenge to parents: Be sure that you are living a life that is worthy of honor. Some parents live such selfish, ungodly lives that the children have nothing to honor. Do not become a stumbling-block to your children by living dishonorably.
Children: pray for your parents daily. They need God’s help to fulfill their responsibility to you. They need encouragement not to give up their parenting responsibility, even into old age.

“Father God, you have all the characteristics of a perfect mother and a
perfect father. Help me to learn these traits by copying You. Amen”