“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12
Q: What is the fifth commandment?
A: You shall honor your father and your mother, so that you will be well and live long on the earth.
What does this mean?
Because we worship and love God, we shouldn’t ignore or anger our parents, but we should honor, obey, love, and think highly of them.
Do you know what a filter is? A filter is something that helps unclean things from getting where you don’t want them. For example, the heating system in your house has a filter on it so that when it blows out warm air in the winter, it filters out the dirt in the air so that it doesn’t blow all over your house. A filter lets good things come through and keeps out the bad.
Sometimes we need a filter over our mouths so that only good things come out. Most conflict in families come through the way we use our words and one of the main ways that children dishonor their parents is through their speech. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a filter over our mouths?
God has given us a great Bible verse that can serve as a filter over our mouths so that we don’t have foul words polluting our families.
Consider Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
- What would be one way you could build each other up with your words right now?
- The verse speaks of our “needs”. Do you know what “the needs” are of your parents in the way that you talk to them? Parents do you know “the needs” of your children?
Prayer
Our Father, thank you that you have spoken so well to us. You have never uttered an unkind word to us and in Jesus, we hear your pleasure spoken over us in your word. May we reflect this truth in the way we speak as a family. May children honor parents and may parents love their children well with word of blessing through praise, instruction, and discipline. In Jesus name, Amen.