Honor Your Parents

(Prov 19:26 NLT) Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

This morning we continue in the book of Power of Proverbs Solomon has already taught us that we, as parents, have a Godly responsibility to teach and train our children in accordance with God's Word, to pour into them all that has been poured into us, and to manage our finances well so that we can leave them and our grandchildren an inheritance. The children, however, also have their own set of Godly responsibilities. They are to obey their parents, submit to the Godly instruction, and cooperate with the developmental process God and their design offer to them.

My parents may not have received an advanced formal education, but they received wisdom from their parents and grandparents. They passed that wisdom on to me. They taught me things that were not popular, things like: integrity, dignity, respect, loyalty, honesty, and hard work. To this day I highly respect my parents and I honor them every chance I get. We will talk more about honor in a minute.

The first part of the verse deals with children who waste their father's substance. In other words, these are kids who don't give a care about their parents' money. Their parents work hard to give them things, but they don't take care of them. Their parents give them money and they waste it as fast as it comes into their hands. These children have no regard for the hard work their parents put into getting where they are. Wasting their father's money also wastes his emotional state, breaks his heart, brings unwelcomed gray hair to his head, and expedites his path to the grave. The second part of the verse tells us that these same children shun their mother. They reject her affection and disregard her instruction. To make bad matters even worse these children are rude, insolent, and disrespectful towards their mother in public, which leads to embarrassment, shame, and disgrace in public and incessant frustration in private.

The sad reality is that this verse is a direct commentary of the state of our nation. Many of our children fall into this category. Many kids today talk back to their parents, openly argue with authority, disregard instruction, and disrespect God, their parents, and all forms of authority. To me this comes down to an issue of honor. Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you" (Ex 20:12). The Hebrew word for honor here is one that connotes "weight." Children that honor their parents are those that give weight to their instruction. These children weigh the temptation to do wrong with the instruction their parents gave them to do right and they choose to give their parents' instruction more weight, therefore choosing to do the right thing. When you give your parents and your God the weight they deserve (on your decision-making scales), you are actually honoring them.

So what does this mean to you? It means you must give your parents the honor (weight) they deserve - in public and in private, in their presence or their absence. Remember that your parents have a Godly responsibility to parent you. Don't fight against them. If you do, you are actually fighting against God as well. Submit to the process. Don't talk back. Don't argue. Humble yourself long enough to allow your parents to pour into you all that has been poured into them. And if you are parent, then make sure you are doing your part to fulfill your Godly responsibility today and every day.

Father, as I child I honor my parents, I give weight to their instruction in their presence and also in their absence. I don't fight back against them and I will never disrespect them in private or in public. I love my parents and I want them to pour into me all that has been poured into them. As a parent, I will take my Godly responsibilities seriously. You work with me Father, to parent my children in accordance with You Word, so that they can develop into the women You desire for them to be. In Jesus' name. Amen!