by Christine Berglund
God is Our Perfect Parent
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.
“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 English Standard Version
With Mother’s Day coming up in a few days, this commandment to honor our father and mother has been on my mind. As a daughter, I have not always done a good job of keeping this commandment. As a teenager and young adult, I had a period of time of knowing everything and was quite a harsh judge of my parents. If you talked to me then, you would think my parents had never done anything right. Sometime in my mid-twenties, I was challenged by this commandment in a Bible study. The writer of the book we were studying pointed out that this commandment comes with no qualifiers. It doesn’t say to honor your parents if you think they did a good job or if you agree with them or if you feel like it or if you think they deserve it or because they treated you well. We are commanded to honor them, and, in exchange, there is a promise that our life may be long. The homework for this particular lesson was to do something to honor our parents. I decided to brainstorm all the things my parents had ever done right and write them a thank you letter for all of those things. I recall that my letter went on for several pages. No, they did not do everything right; no one can, but they had certainly done much for me, and I had been ungrateful.
Many people have difficult relationships with their parents that go beyond the usual self-centeredness of teenagers. Does God expect children to honor their parents even if they were abusive, neglectful, or absent? This is challenging. The commandment offers no qualifiers or exceptions. We can find answers in other parts of scripture.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:44-45a English Standard Version
I don’t believe God wants us to be in harm’s way, and the commandment does not require that we subject ourselves to abuse or remain in close proximity to a parent. With His help, God wants us to forgive, pray for, and offer grace even to those who don’t deserve it. Meanwhile, He adopts us as His children, so we all have a perfect father who can fulfill all our needs for love, encouragement, forgiveness, comfort, and healing that we may not have received from an earthly parent. We can and must honor Him.
This Mother’s Day and Father’s Day I challenge you to ask God to help you honor your parents, whether that is through a physical or tangible act of some kind or an act of forgiveness or remembrance that happens in your heart and spirit.
Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Beautifully said
Thank you for reading. It means a lot to me that my words might speak to someone.
So good! I’m sharing this with my siblings!
Thank you! That means a lot to me. I hope it is helpful or causes a change in perspective.
I feel like my Mom did the best she could and she was not perfect that’s why I learn from her not to follow things you don’t want to do as a adult and you can be a better person and raise our children the best we can also we aren’t perfect. But I as a mom let my children do more then I ever aloud to do. As child and teenager.I was punished when I was 6 years old until I was a teenager by my Step Dad. I was scared almost all my life. I had go bed at 7:00 everyday . I would look out the window watch the neighborhood kids play when I sat in my room. I would get yell at for something I didn’t do. . My story much bigger but I take one day at a time, and pray to god everyday since I was young please help me and please take the pain away.
I’m sorry that those terrible things happened to you. You are a good mom with good kids. I pray that you can have peace.