Grow in gratitude for your God-given guardians.
作者：
Family altar
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As we busy ourselves with Senior Members' Day preparations, let us try to spare a few moments of our time to reflect on our reasons why.
“Honour your father and your mother,
that your days may be long upon the land
which the Lord your God is giving you."
(Exodus 20:12)
Babies are cute and make us smile. We want to take care of them and keep them safe. But, sometimes, we forget that older people, like our parents and grandparents, need as much love and care.
God gave us a special command: to honour our parents. Honouring our parents means showing them love, respect, and listening to them. God promises that if we fully obey this command, we will have long and happy lives.
Jesus too made sure to show how important this command is in His teachings about how to live a good life (see Matthew 19:16–19).
Why does God have to command us to honour our parents? Because sometimes, it really is hard. We have to purposefully choose to be loving and respectful, even when it’s not easy.
Our parents might not always understand the things we like - video games, social media, texting; they cannot understand us completely. As they get older, they might need more help than they know to ask for. Their questions might surprise us - relying on us for things we used to rely on them for.
Being part of our ageing parents' journeys can get frustrating. Nevertheless, we must keep this close in our hearts and minds - before birth, right from the beginning, our parents gave up a lot so they would never give up caring for us.
When we treasure and show how much we love our parents - support them, spend time with them, treat them kindly, especially when they do not ask for us, we are carrying out an important part of God's will. God sees and knows and will bless us and our families for it.
Family Altar
Use these discussion questions and our prayer as a guide for your family altar.
Parents can lead the prayer and invite their children to repeat after them or encourage their children to take the lead, making family altar time a shared journey of faith.
Discussion Questions:
How much do your parents mean to you?
What does "honouring your parents" mean to you?
What makes it hard to honour or help your parents, and what can you do to make it easier?
Prayer in Words:
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.
Thank You, Lord, for providing us with parents who love us and strive to love us as well as You do.
Remind us, Lord, everyday, of all the ways we can return our parents' love,
And glorify Your name as we do so.
Hallelujah, Amen.
