Saturday, October 4, 2008
Proverbs 23:22, 24-25 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him. May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice!
CHILDREN'S DUTIES
On some days she recognized her, on others she didn't have a clue who was visiting. But every Saturday Melissa would come anyway. Her mother had Alzheimer's. Sometimes she remembered family, but other times she looked at them like they were aliens from a different planet.
Sometimes Melissa could have a conversation with her mom, other times mom was back in 1930s, or the forties, or somewhere. Maybe her mom wouldn't have noticed if Melissa stopped visiting. It was often hard for Melissa to come. It wasn't the distance, it was just seeing her mom like this that was hard. But, Melissa wasn't about to stop visiting her mom every Saturday, and praying for her mom every night. That's just what you do, Melissa thought, you take care of the parents that God gave you.
Melissa was right. God tells us that He puts our parents in charge of us, so we owe them our respect. We don't want to say disrespectful things to them. We don't want to disobey them. We want to honor them with the words we say and the things we do. In this way we bring them joy. And God wants this respecting of parents to continue even when we're parents.
"Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old" (Proverbs 23:22).
When we get old enough to make adult decisions on our own, we'll still want to call mom and dad and get their advice on what to do. And we'll never forget to visit our parents and show them that we haven't forgotten that they are still our parents, given by God for our joy and blessing.
PRAYER: Thank you Father in heaven, for giving us to parents and giving parents to us. Help us to respect them and honor them in the way you want us to. Help us to listen to them and learn from them. Help us to keep on honoring Your representatives even when we're adults. And when we fail to do so, forgive us because of Jesus, Your perfect Son, and give us the humility to say "sorry" to our mom and dad. Amen.
