Word for the day "Learn how to honor your parents"

Deuteronomy 5:16 (NLT) Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God commanded you. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Learning how to honor your parents is a necessity.

We may feel a sense of hurt in our emotions as we relate to our parents. This is true especially if we’ve not had the best childhood experiences.

This raises some disturbing questions. How can we honor someone whose actions have been anything but honorable?

Does this mean that we stay under their control and yield to their manipulations in order to please God?

The Bible does express, “Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God commanded you.

Then you will live along, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 5:16).

The word honor comes from a root word meaning “Heavy”; it implies fixing a weighty value on the relationship. We are to place a high value on our parents’ role in our lives.

This does not mean, however, that they have the right to destroy our lives just because they brought us into the world.

Even Jesus said, “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, meaning often our enemies will be right in your own household!” (Matthew 10:35-36).

As we evaluate our lives, we can honor our parents by realizing the heavy impact they have had on us.

We don’t have to let them manipulate and abuse us in order to please God.

But we can still choose to love them, even though we may need to set up boundaries in our relationship with some of them.

Our parents are the gifts the Lord has given us, we must recognize them in good and the challenging times.

And for those parents that we wouldn’t be where we are without them, to God be the glory. In fact, at the end of the day,  I wouldn't be who I am without them.

I am so thankful for you and your guidance, even when I didn’t understand you much of the time and didn’t always appreciate your sacrifices for my life.

You have always been my greatest supporters and the wind beneath my wings.

Even though you may not be here with me now, I still sense you rooting me on in the good and challenges of my life (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV).

Perhaps you didn't grow up with godly parents and have parents that were not so spiritual.

But I have discovered with God that you can learn some godly characteristics from parents that didn't necessarily attend church every Sunday.

God's amazing this way and can make all things work together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28 NKJV).

Point to ponder

If anyone reading today’s message is struggling with honoring your parents, we can best honor our parents by the way we live our lives today.

I am praying for the Lord to heal those broken parent and child relationships in this season.

I’m also praying for those whose parents are no longer with us in the flesh and are deeply missed in our lives.

And for those whose parents are still with us, let us take today’s message and love on our parents like never before.

Special thanks!

Pastor James Baker, Jr. and our leadership team is especially thankful for those of you who provided financial donations and support in the month of February 2020, by partnering with us in efforts to advance the kingdom of God in this 21st century season: Special thanks to Mrs. Angela Harrison, Ms. Annette Straker, Mr. David Straker, Mr. Kenneth Washington, Ms. Darlene Simmons,  Ms. Mable Bazemore, Ms. Evelyn Rosado, Ms. Itholear Abbott,  Mrs. Barbara Mason,  Ms. Theresa Lewis, Ms. Rita McGuffin, Ms. Ashley Baker, and Ms. Gertrude Scott.

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