When I was young, honoring my parents meant obeying them — submitting to their directives and heeding their warnings. As I got older, I began to see more clearly through the haze of my immaturity and understood why my parents took the time to keep me safe. It was easier to honor them because I had collected some wonderful memories of the way they helped me.
But then the enemy came, and took these wonderful people away from me. Oh, how much I wish I could call mom and dad and tell them about my life now! Oh, what a blessing it would be to just hear their voices again. I am crying as I write these words. I am going through a crisis, and how much I wish I could hear my parents relate to me with one of their stories.
But there is a time for everything, a season for every experience. Now I must experience my life without them. But I can still honor them.
Note how the command to honor parents is immediately followed by the prohibitions against murder and adultery. Anything I do has the potential to either honor my family name, or dishonor it.
I can honor my parents by reigning in my anger, and keeping my feelings under control so that they do not get the reputation of having brought a murderer into this world.
I can honor my parents by passionately and faithfully loving the one woman that the Lord gave me. They would not approve of thoughts of abandoning my marriage. It would dishonor them, as well as the God who brought us together.
In short, honoring parents after they are gone means living the life they wanted for me — a life of love and commitment. I want to be the kind of man that my parents would be proud of.
Lord, thank you for my wonderful parents. May I live a life that brings honor to them, and to you.
Jefferson Vann
Extended Scripture: Deuteronomy 5–6
