I have been asking the Lord what it looks like to honor your mother and father as the Bible commands. I know it’s a big deal to Him because it’s one of the top 10 commandments. It sits right between the command to remember the Sabbath and do not murder. Right in the middle of rest and murder we are commanded to honor our mother and father.
A Command For Everyone
When you have good parents it’s easy to honor them in the way we think of honor. But what about the people that have horrible parents? How can this mean the same thing we think it does, if it is a command for everyone?
My conversation with God has been, “What does this mean to YOU Lord?” I’m not interested in my understanding, or my culture’s interpretation. I want to know what God meant when He commanded us to honor our mother and father.
What Does God Mean About Honoring Our Mother and Father?
I want to know what honoring your parents looks like for people with horrible parents? Or no parents? Or amazing parents? It’s a command for all of us. The Bible was written for all people for all time. How does this look in light of different cultures and different parent experiences?
It’s Always About God
The answer is always about God and our relationship and our trust in Him. We want to make it about us and it’s always about Him. Honoring our parents is trusting God. Trusting God with the parents he gave you and me. The good and bad parents, birth parents, adopted parents, foster parents, Christian parents and complete pagen parents.
Trusting God From Day One
Honoring our parents is trusting the position and the family God gave you no matter how you got there. It’s about God, not really about us or our parents. It’s about getting our hearts to trust and believe what God is doing with our lives from day one and every single day after that.
I believe that’s why this is a commandment with a promise attached. Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Right from the start, trust who and where God placed your life to be lived. That will lead to a long life of trusting Him which is right where you will live in the promises of God now and forever.
Don’t get me wrong I believe it is good and right to honor our mothers and fathers in tangible ways, when given the opportunity.
Biblical Commands – Biblical Understanding
The Biblical command has to mean something beyond our circumstances and resources, or it doesn’t hold up under pressure.
Honoring our parents is a position of our hearts toward the God who gave us parents. There is not a living person that got here without a mother and a father, even if they never ever know them. That’s how God speaks to us in his word; He speaks in a way that applies to everyone of His children. It’s for everyone! Everyone with parents, even if the parents are dead, missing, deadbeats, amazing and wonderfully alive, the command is for us all!
The command given by God to honor our mother and father. is a heart and trust factor, not a formula.
Nobody Gets Around Having A Mother and Father
Parents, are given honor because there is no way any of us would be here without parents. Honoring them is honoring and acknowledging the sovereignty of God. That one command causes us to humble ourselves to trust and believe that God put us here on earth, with great purpose on purpose from day one and forever! Honoring our mothers and fathers is honoring God.
