Honouring our parents

I recently met an elderly gentleman who asked me to help him with five hundred shillings. I gave him more, whereupon he thanked me honestly and called me "a good boy." I left wondering whether he had lost his wallet or is one of those unfortunate parents who have been abandoned by their children. 

Later that day while in a saloon having my hair cut, Tupac Shukur's famous song, "Dear Mama" was played. Somewhere in this song he says that when his father died he didn't cry because he could not feel for a stranger! Tupac was raised by a single mother, and that made me wonder whether some children are justified to abandon their parents. 

Yet no matter how much they could have hurt us or not featured in our upbringing, the fifth of the Ten Commandments tells us to honour our parents. It does not say we honour only those parents who have been good to us. It plainly states "honour your parents." 

According to the ESV Study Bible, honouring our parents means treating them with deference, providing for them and looking after them in their old age. Honouring them this way is so important that those who do are promised a long life filled with God's favour. 

Honouring our parents is of such supreme importance that the wisest king, Solomon, said that "the eye that mocks his father, and scorns obedience to his mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by vultures." Ouch! 

 Joyce Mayer was sexually abused her father when she was a young girl. She grew up abhoring him, and kept her resentment even when she became a preacher until God convicted her to forgive her father. When she did, her father was so touched that he sought her forgiveness too, and later became a born-again Christian. By the time he died, Joyce was still  taking good care of him. She still testifies that forgiving and learning to honour her father became a turning point for her ministry. 

They may not have been good to us but the fact that God used them to bring us into this world is enough that we honour our parents with love and care always.