Say That Ten Times Fast!

Say That Ten Times Fast!

Bible Blast: Read Deuteronomy 5:7-21

“Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise. If you honor your father and mother, things will go well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.

Ephesians 6:2-3

Kama Chinen was old. When she died on April 10, 2010, she was 114 years old. She had a ways to go to break the record though. The oldest person who ever lived was a guy named Methuselah who lived way back before Noah built the ark. He isn’t mentioned very much in the Bible, but he’s still kind of famous. Read this verse from Genesis 5, and you’ll see why: “Methuselah lived 969 years.”

He didn’t die until he was 969 years old! Can you imagine watching the ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve almost a thousand years in a row?

There are many reasons a person lives a longer life than others. Healthy living has something to do with it. Some people just seem to have it in their blood. But one solid reason the Bible gives is honoring our parents. Maybe honoring them helps us make safer and healthier choices, or maybe God just delights in blessing us for honoring our parents. We don’t know. We just know that he desires us to honor our parents and promises us longer lives if we do it.

A lot of people think that “honoring your parents” is something they should do in order to pay their parents back for taking care of them, giving them food, clothes, etc. But God first gave that commandment to the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert for forty years. During that period, the Israelite parents didn’t really provide food and clothes for their kids—God did. God provided manna from heaven for them to eat every day. The Bible even says that God made it so their clothes didn’t wear out and their feet didn’t blister for the whole forty years (see Deuteronomy 8:4).

Honoring your parents isn’t about paying them back. It’s about thanking them for giving you life. It’s about knowing they are wiser than you are and respecting that wisdom. It’s about loving others as you love yourself.

Girl Gab: Have fun talking with your mom about what you would do if you found out today that you were going to live for 969 years. Do you think you would want to live that long?