Sometimes honoring our parents can be a real challenge.  Parents are somewhat like church leader or politicians, they deserve our respect just because of who they are.This is the first commandment that comes with a promise.  Exodus 20:12, “HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER THAT YOUR DAYS MAY BE LONG UPON THE LAND WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD HAS GIVEN YOU.”  That sounds like a promise for a long life and that’s a good thing.

There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Babies don’t come with instruction manuel’s.  Each  of us do the best we can with the resources made available to us.  We all make mistakes, but “our love will cover a multitude of sins’.  As long as our children know they are loved unconditionally, they will honor and respect us.

Too many times parents hurt and abuse their children.  It can be physical, mental, or emotional abuse, but they each take there toll on these little lives.  When a child lives in this kind of family, it is often difficult to find anything to respect in their parents.  Children around the world are tortured, starved, locked away, and sometimes even killed, God say to respect and honor them.

I can speak from personal experience.  I was born the fifth child, whom no one wanted in the first place.  My dad was an alcoholic and just plain mean sometimes.  He only slapped me around a few times, but the mental and emotional abuse was awful.

One day he was mad about something I had done, so he went out and butchered my pet rabbit, Queenie.  He as a meat cutter by profession so he cut it up and made Mom roast it for supper.  Then he forced me to eat my pet through all my gagging and tears.  That is cruel.  I will never forget that day!

But, God’s word says we must forgive those who mistreat us, even our parents.  It is only when I was able to forgive him for all his cruelty, that I could begin to respect him as a person.  He never really changed, but went to his grave as an angry man.

It is only through God’s grace and love that I was able to forgive my father and release him to God.  What he after that was up to him.  I have learned to focus on Dad’s good quailties and search for reasns to honor and respect him