Give Honor

DEVOTION
EPHESIANS
GIVE HONOR
Eph 6:1-3
6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother"-which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
NIV
It would seem rather bazaar for me to have to deal with this verse at all consider I am a grandfather, yet my mother-in-law of one hundred stills live on and thus I would still be a child with parent in this sense. Now I also must consider even through both my father and mother has been dead for many years, I still am obligated to honor them. That is I should not ever say another regarding them which would disorder them. Now I think I may have been guilty of this in the past, but that has just come to an abrupt halt. I surely cannot obey them as a child must do to living parents, but I certainly can honor their lives. They are the parents who God used to give me this life. They were given the responsibility to see to my growing up. I am who I am because of much of the influence they had upon my life. So in that I will from hence forth honor them. Now could I be wild enough to see what I am seeing? I know I am stretching way beyond the realm of reality here, but could I not be a child of God and thus should obey my parents in the Lord also? Just a thought, I know this is dealing with earthly family relationships, but it is an interesting idea to ponder over. God is my father and mother and I surely should obey him. Now also what about my parents in the Lord, could this be about those who lead me to Jesus? Just another thought! No I am quite sure this is about my earthly parents, because the complete relational dissertation which follows. So I return back to obeying my mother-in-law, in that sense, but actually I must and will from this time forward give honor to my parents. I believe in my heart I have done that with my mother, but not my father. I remember speaking at her funeral, telling those who attended, I believe the one word which best described her was faithful. She was faithful in being a mother, a wife, and in her belief in Jesus. I believe she did the best she was capable of doing. Although my father had many areas where he was not the best, I do believe he tried. He had so much baggage it may have been more then he could handle, but he was my father and I know there were I times I knew he loved me. He failed at much, but then so have I failed at much. So I give both of them honor.