Where You Lead

Honoring Parents

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Exodus 20:12

I won’t even begin to touch upon the way I treated my own parents when I was a teenager. Those are years that I’d just as soon forget. Today, though, I appreciate my parents more and more every day. I try very hard to show my own children how to respect me by setting an example with my parents.

I know that I’m very blessed. God has given two wonderful parents so honoring them is an easy task. They’re not perfect, and sometimes they can be downright frustrating, but I have learned to appreciate their really wonderful qualities while simply accepting their shortcomings as part of who they are. I often point out to my children how lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives. The flaws my parents have are so very minor compared to the generous, loving people they are.

I’ve known people who were not so nice and must have been quite a challenge to love. I knew a woman who was very generous but she could be very blunt, to the point of hurting feelings. Her daughter acknowledged the frustration but also mentioned once that her son learned a great deal by dealing with his grandmother. When he got a job bagging groceries, he was able to handle the grumpiest old folks because he had learned to honor and respect his own grandmother and to appreciate her generous natures, even when she was being difficult.

It is so vital that we teach our children to honor us and the best way to do that is by setting an example with our own behavior. Let’s remember to honor our parents. Let’s teach by example.