“Children, obey your parents, for this is right. You must honor your father and mother – this is the first commandment, with a promise to make it good – so that you may prosper and live a long life on earth. You parents, too, must stop exasperating your children, but continue to bring them up with the sort of education and counsel the Lord approves” (Ephesians 6: 1- 4)
The question “what is honor, and what does it require of me” popped into my mind as I read this passage again. How many times had I read that passage, without really thinking about what honoring means? According to Dictionary.com:
“high respect, as for worth, merit, or rank: to be held in honor.“
“to hold in honor or high respect; revere: to honor one’s parents.”
Hmm. (**Little disclaimer here: I’m not gonna be talking about the noun aspect of honor… I’m more focusing on the attitude of it, just to clarify.)
I’ve always struggled with the distinguishing the difference between honoring someone and obeying. At the beginning of the passage, obedience to parents is mentioned, or rather, commanded. Obedience is a pretty black and white sort of thing; either you obey or you don’t. The saying “slow obedience is no obedience” comes to mind. But honor on the other hand… it’s different. To show or regard someone with honor is an issue of the heart moreso than anything else, I think, because unless you really do regard a person with respect, there’s no way you can honor them. If there’s a person in your life that bullies you, how can it be possible to respect them? You can’t force yourself to honor them in the same way you could force obedience.
I dunno. I guess my real struggle with the idea of honoring someone is the sacrifice it requires on my part. That and.. where is the line between honoring and obedience? Can you honor your parents without obeying them, or is obedience what comes out of honoring them? I guess the issue of honoring ones parents and authorities comes to mind because I’ve been thinking about issues I’ve had, both in the past and present, and how I might have reacted differently if I was showing respect and honor. How my behaviour might change if my attitude were in line with those verses. I dunno. It’s just food for thought… I wanted to write it down somewhere. It’s a train of thought I’ll definitely be pursuing more in the near future.
On another note, a far less serious one at that, the annual youth retreat is coming up!! 8D TOMORROW. Or… technically today, seeing as it’s almost.. crap. 3am. I’m getting up in 5 hours. Lovely. Oh well.. long car ride = nap time. Man. But this year is going to be awesome. I fully intend to take a buncha tona pictures so that I can remember it forever, because it’s extremely likely and almost 100% certain that this will be my last one. And, seeing as it’s almost 3am, I shall end this blog post here, abruptly, and say goodnight =)
Peace.
