Only On Father's Day

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. (Exodus 20)

I recently spoke to a man who had a portrait of his grandfather in his office. When I asked about it, he said that his grandfather was the greatest man that ever lived. Then he paused and said, "except for One." This man honored his grandfather in his heart and in his words. His honor was obviously sincere.

This commandment to honor is repeated many times in the Bible. And, this is the season that we are encouraged by business to show honor by finding things to buy for our parents. Yet, like the rest of the Ten Commandments, this commandment can be genuinely obeyed only when our actions and words are a sincere manifestation of our internal thoughts and attitudes. A person who speaks to his mother only at Christmas and Mother's day obviously has a relationship problem and does not genuinely love and honor her.

The quality of our honor and respect for our parents is not manifest in occasional gifts but in the positive energy of our relationship. If we find their presence tiresome, their ideas boring and generally have more important things to do than to talk to them, then our relationship will manifest our attitudes with infrequent visits and conversation. Also, if we speak of them to others with respect and honor, when they are not around, it demonstrates that our words come from our heart rather than just our lips.

" A son honors his father, and a servant his master Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the LORD of hosts to you, .. Malachi 1

In the same way, the quality of our honor and love for God is shown in the energy of our relationship with Him. Do we actually desire to hear His words and understand His ideas? Or, do we find time listening and talking to Him to be boring, tiresome and less important than reading the news or watching our favorite sports entertainment? Do we honor Him with purified hearts or do we enter into "worship" or "communion" with hidden sins. Do we bring hatred and resentment to the table? Maybe we bring hatred toward a relative, spouse, ex-spouse, or neighbor? If we bring resentment and hatred to worship, then we clearly haven't honored God's desire and command to do all we can to be reconciled.

In some of the other commandments, God makes it clear that He desires us to honor and respect Him. In Jesus, God has made it very clear the extremes that He will go to in order to be reconciled with us. Yet, the choice of entering into a genuine relationship with Him depends on us changing our minds about sin and about our priorities. It has been estimated that, in the United States, at least 80% of those who call themselves Christian are actually false converts. They believe in Jesus but they have not truly repented of their wrong desires, their favorites sins and especially of being boss of their own lives. Let's test ourselves. Do I really want God's will and direction in my life? If so, when was the last time I read the Bible to see how it applied to my life? Was it today or only on Sunday, Christmas, Easter, or Father's Day?