There are ten commandments. The first four deal with our relationship to God and the last six deal with our relationship to other people. The first commandment which deals with other people has to do with our relationship to our parents.
Honor your father and your mother, that the days may be long in the land which the LORD has given you.
To honor our parents does not necessarily mean we obey them, but we do make an effort to respect them and not to disgrace them.
One of the violations of Jerusalem's people is that they had contempt for their parents.
Contempt begins with a sigh when asked to do something for our parents. It moves to the rolling of eyes to a glaring, mocking stance. It then moves to rebellion and belittling. Soon, contempt finds the son or daughter ignoring and/or demanding from the parent.
This was the sin of the prodigal son. He had such contempt for his father that he basically said, "I wish you were dead, for my inheritance means more to me than a relationship with you while you are alive."
Bringing honor to our parents is easy if the relationship is full of love. It gets harder when personalities clash or, worse yet, when abuse enters the picture. In these cases, we think we have the right to snub, withdraw from and even condemn our parents.
Beware if you are walking down that path. Time to turn around and retrace your steps.
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