Honor thy Father and Mother:

My church is still continuing to give sermons on the Ten Commandments.  I have obviously really enjoyed this sermon series.  This past week was over Honoring thy father and mother.  This is the one command some find interesting.  It is a very specific command.  Something the pastor brought up was, “Why is this command so specific?  Why couldn’t the command be more about honoring everyone? Why is it just to honor thy father and mother?” However, there are many reasons my pastor brought up as to why it is important to honor thy father and mother. 

For one thing, we as people can struggle to honor others.  This doesn’t just mean mothers and fathers, but everyone in general, especially those who are in authority.  Learning how to honor our father and mother gives us an opportunity to learn how to better honor authority at a young age. We may obey our authority figures, but we also may talk disrespectfully about them when we are not around them.  This is really not honoring.  This is just basically following their orders.  It is important to learn how to honor someone when we are young. If we learn to honor our parents, then we can also learn how to honor our bosses, our government officials, etc.  This is important to teach us how to conduct and act in our society. Otherwise, we may want to go against authority because we may believe we know better or are just being defiant. 

Some verses good about highlighting this concept is Romans 13:1-2 which says, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” These verses remind us of God’s work in our lives and in the lives of our authorities.  

My pastor did a really good job reminding us we don’t have to agree with everything people in authority have to tell us or everything they stand behind.  There are going to be times we don’t agree with our supervisors or our parents or our government officials.  However, during those times, we need to make sure we can still be respectful and kind to those who are above us.  There is a way to honor those who are in authority while also disagreeing with them.  

I remember having mixed feelings about this command as I was growing up.  I loved listening to my mom (for the most part).  We got along great.  She is still one of my best friends.  I also was really close to my grandparents.  However, I did struggle getting along with my dad growing up.  There were times we got along great and we were able to do things together very easily.  However, there were times we did not get along at all, and I personally was not very good about respecting or honoring him.  There were times I didn’t feel as though he even deserved it. I have worked on this continually as I have gotten older, and it has gotten a lot easier to be respectful and honoring to my dad. 

Besides the relationships with my parents, I do overall have honor and respect for those who are my supervisors or are in charge of me at my job.  I want to make sure I do a good job at my place of work, which does include listening to my bosses and supervisors.  However, there are times when I struggle with this as well.  I can sometimes be pretty prideful in pieces of my work.  For example, I make lessons for the various age groups of the students who are in our program. I love getting the chance to be creative and incorporate fun pieces into the lessons.  Because of this, sometimes I am very open to changes and discussions of changes, and then there are times when I am not.  There are times I can be very happy with the way it looks, and I am not as open to discussion about how to make it better. This is something I have become a bit more aware of, and I want to make sure I can do a better job with it.  

The challenge for this week is to first be reflective over how we handle authority.  Are we good about handling authority?  Are you a person who does a good job listening and honoring those who are in authority over you, or are you typically a person who finds it hard to listen to authority figures?  It is important to be aware of those who are in authority over you.  It is important to be willing to listen, even if there are times when we don’t want to.

However, there is one important thing to remember and to take away is that we do have to honor God above all else.  We can still be kind and respectful to other authorities, but we do need to remember to put Christ above everyone.  For example, we still need to honor the Bible before we honor job commands.  This is why a person could decide or request to not work on the Sunday or at least one day of the week to honor the Sabbath.  Even though a request from work may seem like a way to honor work, it is important to honor the Lord above the one of work.