CRUX Daily: Want to Live Long? Obey.

Read: Exodus 20:12 & Ephesians 6:1-3

Reflect: What does it mean to “honor your father and mother?” What do you do that dishonors your parents? Think of 3 ways you can honor your parents better.

Request (Prayer): Father, help me to be obedient to Your commandments and to honor my parents better.

I don’t know about you, but when I was in Jr. High, I put my parents through a lot. I made their job as parents a lot harder than it should have been. Why? Because I thought I knew it all, I thought I always had the right answer, and the right answer is that, I was wrong.

As young teens, we think we know it all. We think we have all the right answers, we think our parents should be listening to us, rather than us listening to them. Am I right?

But in fact, the Bible tells us, “Children, obey your father and mother, so that your days in the land may be prosperous.” It doesn’t say, “Parents, listen to your children and give them everything they demand.” Our parents do not answer to us, we answer to them. I am far beyond my teen years and I still listen to my parents. They still have me do chores around the house, and just because I am older does not mean that I have to disobey them. My parents will always be my parents, and you will always be their child, so respect them and honor them.

What does it mean to “honor” your parents? To honor means, “to hold in honor or high respect”. That means when your parents tell you to clean your room, you don’t just clean it, you clean it the first time you are told to. And then that in turn will cause you to clean your room without even your parents asking.

It’s not always easy to honor and obey your parents, but it’s the right thing to do. For Paul to say in Ephesians that if we obey our parents we will live long in the land, must be a pretty big deal! In fact, it is a big deal! In the Old Testament, if a kid disobeyed their parents, they were to be taken to the city and be stoned to death! Thank God they don’t punish us that way now! But if you can learn to obey your parents now, chances are you will then be able to also teach your kids how to obey you and you will be able to show them how to live live’s pleasing to God.

Do you want to please God? Listen to your parents and obey them at all times.