Honor thy parents

Being a Christian isn’t easy. Trying to find that right balance of honoring God with your life but at the same time not pushing others away from being curious about God or Christianity is delicate. I have no desire to tell you your life is a mess when mine is a different mess. I would like to share with you some of my struggles. Maybe you are going through the same thing.

A friend of mine is going to seminary. I have learned so much through him. I am so grateful that he is sharing his knowledge about the Bible.

The piece below I wrote because this is a real struggle in my life. It’s very therapeutic for me to research and write about issues. Most I have zero control over. But I write anyway.

Honor thy parents

The 10 commandments:

Exodus 20:12 honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God give thee.

I honestly struggle with this. How? How do you honor a parent that let bad things happen to you? How!

Some children had a Norman Rockwell childhood. This makes me happy for you. Somehow, I feel like you are in the minority. If I read the chart correctly, chfs.ky.gov had over 550,000 reported cases of child mistreatment in 2020.

One answer I got was, “Respect that you exist because of them. God doesn’t make mistakes.” How! How do you respect a person?

Let God deal with it? Sure. This is the best way. Because we are human, Satan will use this to guilt us. Prod us. And make us think we are bad because honor takes on many different forms. Many children honor their parents by taking on the same career path. Others show honor with material possession: a new house, a new car. Or maybe they show honor by naming a child after a parent.

What about children that were victims of child abuse? How do they honor their parents in the eyes of God that represents the spirit of this commandment?

“I’m only human. I did the best I could.” Well your best sucked!

You are toxic. You are hurtful.

So what to do?

1. Forgive them. (Ephesians 4:32) I could have started off with an easy one. Forgiveness is hard. It we are forgiving ourselves or others. Forgiveness does not excuse bad behavior, nor does it permit future bad behavior.

2. Be grateful. You might ask, grateful for what? You are alive. Pewresearch.com estimates 930,160 abortions were preformed in 2020 nationwide. You may not be setting the world on fire. Life might be a great struggle. You are here.

3. Share Grace. (Titus 3:7) More hard work. But look what Jesus did for me and you. If we accept him as our Lord and savior, he died on a cross for me and you.

4. Love them: (Matthew 5:43-48) No one is saying invite them to your house for Christmas dinner. Or loan them a million dollars. Love comes in many forms.

5. Pray for them. Prayer is our direct line of communication with God. Pray for your ‘bad’ parents. Pray for yourself as well. Ask God to show you the right way to be at peace with a craptastic childhood.

6. If you are a parent, don’t say bad things about your parents in front of your children. They might think this is the way they should talk about you. (Proverbs 22:6)

As Christian children we have to do all the work. But that’s okay. All of the listed above are actions to be taken. Work to be done. These are steps children should take so that they can be healthy physically, mentally and emotionally.

Can’t do it alone. No you can’t. God, friends, preachers, trusted family, therapist, are in this world to help children move in a positive direction. Closer to God. Closer to healing.

pewresearch.com

The Bible

Chfs.ky.gov