Mom And Dad, You Matter

Mom and Dad, You Matter

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.

Deuteronomy 5:16

Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”

Ephesians 6:1-3

“My parents are so cool. I can’t wait to talk to them about this to get their opinion and advice.” Can you imagine hearing someone in high school say this? A college student? Even an adult?

It can be terribly uncool to honor your parents. If you refuse to join in the discussion with your peers about how ridiculous your parents are, you will probably get some strange looks, at the very least. And it doesn’t really stop when we’re out of school. We live in a culture where parent-bashing is the norm. Parents who “just don’t get it” are the constant butt of jokes on sitcoms and in movies.

Confronting this norm of disrespect comes the fifth commandment—to honor our fathers and mothers. The word honor comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to be heavy” or “to give weight.” It involves seriously taking someone into account, offering that person profound respect and a place of importance and reverence. The opposite of honoring someone is trivializing, despising, or forgetting him or her, or treating the person as if he or she doesn’t matter.

Honoring your parents is an attitude, but it’s also accompanied by actions. It’s a way of saying, “You are worthy. You have value. You are someone God has sovereignly placed in my life. You may have failed me, hurt me, and disappointed me at times, but I choose to look at you with compassion—as people with needs, concerns, and scars of your own—and treat you with respect.”

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What are some ways you have observed your parents honoring their own parents?

What are some specific actions and attitudes that honor parents?

Why do you think honoring parents is important to God?