The Fifth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:12 - Honor thy father and they mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 19:19 - Honor thy father and they mother... (KJV)
Jesus says this commandment in the section where the young ruler came to Him and asked Him what good thing shall he do that he may have eternal life. After this question, Jesus said to keep the commandments and the young ruler asked which. Jesus recited six of the 10 commandments to this young ruler.

Honoring our fathers and mothers seems like it should be a simple command. But how do we really honor them (in God's eyes)? Is it listening to what our parents say? If that is the case then there are many instances where I have gone wrong, but if I had listened to what my parents had said, in some of those cases I would be going against what I felt led to do by God. Who is more important? In my opinion, God is.

Paul says several times throughout his letters Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise (Ephesians 6:1-2 KJV).

This is one that I definitely need to continue to work on. Even though I no longer live under my father's roof, I still respect my mom and dad and want to make them proud of me, but to me, there is a balance between making them proud/honoring them, and doing what I feel led to do. I also would like to stick in there my happiness, but does that make me selfish? To want to be happy and enjoy what I am doing with my life? In some ways I do think so because I may be putting my wants before what both God and my parents want for me, but in other ways, the happier I am with what I am doing, the easier it is to be a good Christian to others. Maybe it's not always supposed to be easy to be a good Christian, but I don't think it should be hard to be one all the time.

As much as most people want to honor their parents, honoring our parents is harder than it seems like it would be at times, but it is something which we all must strive to do since Jesus commanded we do.

Blessings in Christ,