LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!

Mother’s Day, May 12, 2019

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!

Ex 20:12

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

           The Hebrew word to honor is the word kabed an it literally means “to make heavy.”  The idea is to heap so much affection upon our mother and father as to be lavish and burdensome. To make a long explanation much shorter, you can’t honor your mother too much.

           But just how, specifically, do I honor my mother? Well, I would think that the basic and minimum requirement would be obedience. Mothers instinctively want the best for their children. It may not seem so when discipline is being given, but even the discipline is an act of love.

           One thought that forms an umbrella under which all other acts of love reside is to simply make her life less stressful and more comfortable as a son or daughter. In every action we can ask: “How will this effect my mother?” I remember, as a teen, lying to my mother when I knew I was going to do something bad. I lied, not so much to avoid punishment, but to limit the worry in my mother. I don’t recommend this practice just because I did it.

Eph 6:1-3

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)

3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Dear Lord, today let us conduct ourselves in a way that we would make our gifts to mother heavy. AMEN