HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER
May
9
Written by:
5/9/2010 12:00 AM
HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER
May 9, 2010
(Exo 20:12 NIV) "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
The second Sunday of the month of May is the day that Mother`s Day is celebrated in Japan and a number of other countries including the United States and Canada. Many other countries celebrate Mother`s Day on a different day. However, most people do not know that giving honor to your fathers and mothers is the fifth commandment that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
Soon after becoming a Christian in April of 1981, I realized God wants us to honor our fathers and mothers. I wanted my parents to become Christians so I decided I should honor my father and mother in whatever way I could. That proved to be a very big challenge. My parents came up to visit us every fall in Canada from the United States. However, my mother became very upset that I became a Christian and did not come to Canada for four years. She believed I had become like one of those crazy people that shout from a mountain top that Jesus is coming. My father continued to come up to visit us as he loved hunting. However, I usually took a trip in the winter to visit my parents. I was always nice to my mother and showed her respect even when she was angry at me. I thought of many ways that I could honor my mother and father and finally came up with a special plan. When I was in Phoenix visiting my parents I would take them to an expensive restaurant on the top of a tall building. The restaurant was a revolving one so we could see most of the city when we were eating dinner. In this way and other ways I honored my parents.
Both of my parents became Christian, but the biggest test was yet to come. Our parents did not want us to become missionaries in Japan. However, we chose to obey God rather than the wishes of our parents. Our parents strongly resisted us going to Japan up until the time we left for Japan. My parents accepted our move to Japan after we moved, but for about 10 years we only returned once per year. We began to realize that to show more respect for our family we needed to make two trips to the USA each year to visit our parents. The last conversation I had with my father was in February of 1999. It was 2-3 weeks before he died. I told my father we were going to move to Awaji Island in March. My father asked if I was going to visit him in the summer since we were moving to Awaji. I said yes.
There are two main reasons why we should honor our mother and father.
(1.) Honoring your mother and father is the fifth commandment. When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to receive the 10 commandments from God they were written on two stone tablets. The first 5 commandments concern our personal relationship with God. By fulfilling the fifth commandment we can fully appreciate our relationship with almighty God. The second five commandments concern human relationships.
(2) We should honor our mother and father because God commanded us to. We honor God when we honor our parents. It does not matter if our parents were good or bad. We are commanded by God to honor them. By honoring God`s commands we show that we know Him. (1 John 2:3 NIV) We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. (1 John 2:4 NIV) The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:5 NIV) But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: (1 John 2:6 NIV) whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
How can we honor our parents?
(1.) Show them respect. This may be difficult if our parents are not good parents, but that is what God wants us to do.
(2.) Live our life as God wants us to. That will bring honor to our parents. When we do not live our life according to the Word of God we bring dishonor to our parents and God.
(3.) We should care for our parents and help them as much as possible. This is even more important as they get older.
Today as we honor our mothers we honor God. However, we should not honor our mothers once per year, but every day.