From Pastor Tim: Today I have a guest post by a friend. I believe this will be a blessing to you and speak to your heart!
Maybe the Most Important Discipline You’ll Ever Learn by Lenny Ouradnik
The fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20), is more important than you might think. For many, it can be a difficult task. It may take discipline to begin and persist in honoring your parents. But interestingly, it comes with a reward. “…so that you will live a long time in the land God is giving you.”If you think about it for a minute, you’ll realize your relationship with your parents is the most important one you will ever have. This relationship informs and impacts your relationships with everyone you will ever come to know. Your relationship with your parents affects your relationship with your siblings, friends, co-workers, spouse, and children.From personal experience, I know that learning the discipline of honoring my parents has changed my life. I have relationships with men and women I went to college with, people I worked with years ago primarily because I learned to honor the important people in my life.As a young man, I moved back to my parent’s home to re-orient my life and make what turned out to be a substantial change in my lifestyle. I had lived at home for about 6 months, and during that time, my father and I spent an extended period at home together while my mother was out of town.As you might imagine, being a young, undisciplined man, I was not a good roommate. One day, my father came home and told me how unhappy he was that I hadn’t done the dishes. As he was talking, he said something I took offense to. I don’t even remember what he said. I shot back with a quick, “Yeah? Well, you were a rotten dad!”Whatever else was going on between us, my dad was a deeply spiritual man who carried a lot of spiritual authority. He stopped responding, drew in a breath, and said, “Len, in the Bible (Eph 6) where its says, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ it doesn’t say to honor them if their good and not honor them if they’re bad. It just says, ‘Honor them.’”I was an angry 23-year-old man who shouldn’t have heard what he said. But, somehow, down in my spirit, I did. I can tell you that this very simple exhortation changed my life because I listened. I began to honor my Dad. I started by honoring him in my heart. Every time I caught myself saying things out loud that dishonored him, I stopped. I corrected myself. When others asked me how things were going with him, I learned to say good things. I persisted in this and disciplined myself to continue to honor him repeatedly.I never spoke to him about it. I didn’t tell him about the effort I was making. I just did it. And it didn’t take long to see a change in our relationship. I came to the place where I began to consider my dad not only as my parent, but also as my friend.My Dad passed suddenly several years ago. I forgot to send his card on time on Father's Day that year, as I often did. Instead of a card, I decided to write him a letter. In that letter, I told him, among other things, that I considered him as one of my best friends.I can still remember talking to him like it was yesterday, the things he said, the things he found funny, and the spiritual advice and instruction he gave me. I miss him every day.Following the wisdom found in Scripture literally changed my life. I know that if I hadn’t learned to honor my parents, I would never have been able to honor my family or anyone else. My life would have been unimaginably difficult. And I would havethought it was everyone else’s fault.Today you can start changing your life, your relationship with the Lord, and with others by choosing to honor and forgive the important people in your life, including you parents, your spouse, your children and your friends! Ask the Lord for help. He will always help you when you are trying to follow His will!
Honoring Parents – Exodus 20:12 (NIV) "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."
Honoring Others – Romans 12:10 (ESV) "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."
If you would like to learn more about Lenny, his bio, and check out his website and books, you can by visiting lennyo.org.
In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt
