Children, obey your parents as you would the Lord, because this is right.  Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land.  Ephesians 6:1-3 HCSB

I would love to go back to my younger years with the knowledge that I have now. I remember my teen years when I thought that I knew everything and that my parents were just in my way of having a good time.  But I’ve learned a few things since then.  I have learned that if I had listened to my parents, my life would have been a lot better.

Our scripture passage today speaks of the only commandment that comes with a promise.  God tells us to honor our father and our mother.  He gives a promise that if we do, we will do well and live long.  This is part of the instruction manual for good family living.  Verse four in Ephesians 6 instructs fathers not to stir up anger in their children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Don’t nag your children or arbitrarily assert authority over them.  Love them and show them the Christian way.  You see, if you raise your children up to be God fearing young adults, then they will respect God and they will respect you.  If they obey the ten commandments, then they will be able to more easily obey the rules of your home.

As I once heard an evangelist say, “I had a drug problem.  I was drug to church every time the doors were open”.  There was never a question about whether or not we were going to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, or Wednesday night.  We were going.  I didn’t honor my mom by continuing that lifestyle once I graduated high school.  I would go faithfully for a while and then I would go a couple times a month and consider that good enough.  Interesting thing though, things didn’t go so well for me during that period in my life.  Amazing how that works, isn’t it?

When I did get back into church and get involved in church as my mother had always wanted, my life began to go a lot better. Another amazing little tidbit to ponder.

My parents honored their parents.  They modeled the proper way to treat parents for me. I regret the times that I did not honor my parents.  I think back to times in my teen years when I was difficult.  I often say that the reason I don’t have children is because I was afraid I would have one just like me.  My parents were patient but firm and I did not skate through my teen years without a few spankings.  Spankings that were well deserved, I might add. I had worked hard for them and I was properly rewarded.

The world that children are growing up in today is not the world that I grew up in.  Back then some of the “bad” kids might smoke cigarettes.  The “really bad” kids might drink alcohol and/or smoke pot.  Today the school ground has become a dangerous place.  Why?  Well, quite simply when you take a bunch of children who are not saved and not being raised in church and don’t honor their parents and put them all together you have problems. You basically have a prison situation where you are trying to educate the few that are there for an education.  They are thrown in amongst the ones that are there to fight and show a total disregard for authority.  If they are not taught to honor the parents, how are they going to honor authority at school?  If they are not raised as Christians, how will they exemplify Christ and obey the ten commandments during their teen years?

In my 22 years in probation and parole, I spent 18 years working with juveniles.  I can honestly say that I never saw a Christian child being raised in a Christian family on probation and definitely not on parole.  In the adult system I had a couple of Christians on parole.  These were men and that had hit rock bottom while serving their prison sentence and decided to make a positive change in their lives in order to avoid returning to prison.  It worked, each of them was able to successfully complete their parole.

Our home life is our foundation for how we will perform in the outside world.  Whether you are a teenager or an adult reading this, I ask you to examine your home life.  How is it going?  Are you a part of the problem or a part of the solution.  Children, you are instructed in the Bible to honor your father and your mother.  Mom and Dad, you are instructed to train up a child in the way that they should go.  You are instructed to train them up in the way that the Lord instructs you to.

Just imagine if we all lived by God’s word, what a wonderful world this would be.  It would literally be heaven on earth.

Have a great day!