HONOUR AND OBEY

The modern life has made our life mechanical, and we have become “machines.” The first casualty of our “progress” is the breakdown of relationships. Some have “grown up,” and simply don’t care. Some, though they care, they can’t break free from the clutches of their “monotonous” and “mechanical” life. Somehow, our progress has made us captives to all that we desire, and have become its willing “slaves.”

Of all the many relationships, two are the most sacred, if I may say so. One is our relationship with our spouse, and the other is our relationship with our parents. Between these two, the parents seem to be the most expendable, without any guilt what so ever. What a tragedy that we are living today.

Henry Ward Beecher believes, “There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.” When the children grows big, they begin to think “big” about themselves, and abandon all responsibility towards their parents. Allow me to say, “Let us appreciate our parents, while they are still alive. We never know what sacrifices they went through for us, our welfare, and our progress. Our lives that “we” built, is standing today, on what they sacrificed for us.” Let us never forget it.

How can we forget the very people who give us life? Chuck Palahniuk says something very profound – “First, your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life.” Let us always remember this.

Our parents are not beggars. They are proud people. We should be sensible and sensitive to realise that, in the words of Miska Amani – “Parents act so strong for us that we often forget just how fragile they are.” They will always love us, and they will always sacrifice for us. 

Man has begun to use every possible logic and argument to make room for himself, and ensure that he doesn’t feel guilty of not caring for the parents. Abandoning the parents is explained away with “leaving and cleaving” from Genesis and elsewhere in the Bible. What a pity.

Many times, we conveniently forget, that the LORD thought it fit to mention the welfare of the parents, as the first of the Ten Commandments, that concerns human beings, and all human relationships. Pity, we don’t see it that way, in regards to our parents, but are quick to quote it in our defence with our children. What a pity, and what a tragedy!

How can we forget the love of our parents? Ann Brashares has some enlightening words – “Parents were the only ones obligated to love you. From the rest of the world, you had to earn it.” How can we forget it…and so soon?

The LORD says, 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
“16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
“3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father…I am the LORD your God.”
“16 Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
Jesus Christ said, – “4 For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother’; and, He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” – Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Leviticus 19:3, Deuteronomy 27:16, Matthew 15:4, Ephesians 6:2-3