We hear this phrase all the time, I plea the fifth, well it is not really talking about the fifth commandment, but that is how I am using it today. Don't just plea, really observe it. AMEN!
This is a commandment we learn as a little child, but how many of us can really say that we do this? When we disobey a parent, that is not honor, when we argue with a parent, that is not honor, when we do not take care of our parents, that is not honor, and when we bad mouth a parent, that is certainly not honor.
Something happened yesterday on my first day of work, back in the public again. A lady came in the store with her 3 grandchildren, two pre-teens and one teenager. Someone asks the young girls if they had been swimming alot this summer and the grandmother spoke up and said, no they have been at the worthless jerks house all summer. The clerk looked startled at the grandmother, and she said they know he is a worthless jerk, and then turned to the two younger girls and said, ya'll know that right, don't you know that? I was horrified. Being brought up in a broken home myself, I never once heard my father say anything bad about my mother, or vice-versa. My heart went out to these girls. The teenager just agreed and tried to act like her grandmother. The younger girls looked like they just shook their heads out of fear for the grandmother's wrath. Then almost in the same breath she started talking about an incident at church. She was bad mouthing a new man at church. Again, I was struck with I don't know what at how this woman was so bitter, negative, and full of anger. My first thought was these poor girls really need a better role model. Then the grandmother goes on to talk about how she has been running the 2 & 3 year old Sunday school class there for years and how much she does for that church. WOW!
I wonder does she teach those little ones the 10 commandments? The one about honoring your mother and father. I wonder does she realize that when she bad mouths her grand-children's father and asks for their approval that she is causing them to sin. I wonder if she can even see past her own bitterness, or if her heart is really so hardened that she doesn't realize that she is planting seeds in these young peoples lives. I immediately was angered by her actions, so I kept my face averted from the front. I had prayed that morning that the LORD fill me up with His presence and His word so that I would not re-act from my flesh, but first check my heart to see what His word says about my situation. I am glad I did, so I did not respond like I would have in my earlier days before coming to know the LORD, and really taking His word to heart. The LORD showed me, that what this lady needed most of all was not a tongue lashing, or my judgment, but prayer. So I prayed for her and her grandchildren and their father. I prayed the LORD would soften this woman's heart, and that whatever the situation with her ex-son-in-law, that she would pray for him, and that she would keep her opinions of him to herself, and not cause her granddaughters to sin against their own father.
Exodus 20 v 12....Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long, upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.......
God is trying to tell you here that if you do not honor your father and your mother, you will not live out the days He has for you. He is trying to show us, that if we do not raise our children to respect their parents, then why in the world would they respect any one else. We are bringing up the next generation, we are the ones who have to teach them to be dedicated to worshiping the LORD, to serving the community, to showing each other respect, so that they may build their own strong families. Families, that are strong in the Lord and His ways. AMEN!
If you have ever been in this situation, please think before you speak. No matter what that person has done, they are still the children's parent and they deserve the respect any father or mother deserves from their children. When you bad mouth their parent you are only causing them to resent you in the long run, and when they get older, they will not respect you either. I know, I have been there. No matter what a parent does, that child still loves them as their mother or father. AMEN!
Neta
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