Honour Your Parents

If we go to the Book of Exodus, Chapter 20 and verse 12, we see The Lord says:

“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which The Lord your God is giving you.”

And that same scripture is repeated again in the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 6 and verses 1 and 2.

We have to honour our parents.

It is the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added unto it.

If you honour your mom and dad, your days will be long in the land.

Oh my dear friend, as we are in the middle of this lockdown, I need to ask you a question.

How are your mom and dad today?

They might be lonely.

They might need that phonemail, or that Skype or that email or that WhatsApp because they are sitting there on their own.

You may be overseas working and you can’t get to them.

Send them a love letter today.

You know, I had the privilege of having my mom and dad living on the farm with Jill and I for the last days of their life.

And I used to go up every single afternoon and have a cup of tea with my dad.

He lived in a little cottage just behind our little house and I really long for those days.

I want to tell you, I would give you a million rand just to be able to have a cup of tea with my dad and say, “Dad, how are you?”

But I have to wait because he has gone to be with Jesus in Heaven, as has my mother.

I had the great privilege and honour of leading them both to Christ, probably one of the highlights in my ministry.

You say, but Uncle Angus, my dad and my mom are very cantankerous and very awkward sometimes.

Well, I want to say something to you.

You know, they say growing old is not for sissies, and you don’t know what your mom and dad are going through.

Maybe your dad has got a sore back, maybe your mom is battling with some ailment and they are just soldiering on and they just need you to be patient with them, just like they were patient with you when you were a small child.

I remember when I started preaching, my mom used to sit in the front row in a little church in Greytown and I would preach my heart out and her little white head was bowed down and I used to think, “Mom, are you not listening to my preaching?”

No, she wasn’t listening to my preaching.

She was praying for me.

And you know, eventually, when my mom went to be with The Lord, I would get into that pulpit and look down to the place where my mom sat and she wasn’t there, and it used to leave a big hole in my heart.

We need to love our parents.

This is a commandment from God and even if they are awkward, and even if they don’t want to speak to you, you still need to love them. Why?

Because Jesus said so! That is why!

So love one another.

Love your mom, love your dad, honour them and The Lord will honour you.