Most of us know the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses from the Lord God. For generation after generation these have been the laws that everyone respected and adhered to. If we would all abide by these God given commandments the world would be a much better place.
In Exodus 20:12 we are told “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
What a great commandment! All of us need to realize that without our father and mother there would be no us. They brought us into this world, and for many of us, raised us in the way we should go. Parents should teach their children the difference between wrong and right. They should reinforce the positive reactions of the children while teaching them respect, honor, and duty.
Parents should admonish their children when they go astray and have no respect for authority.
Statistics will reinforce that most of the troubled children in our society come from broken homes, single-parent homes, and homes where love is not shown. This is not to say that some children that have the best of everything are always going to make the right decisions. Many are led into the wilderness without the blessing of the parents and many stumble and fall into the temptation of Satan.
I see so many times in our modern day society the lack of respect from children for their parents and their elders. Sassy mouths, vulgar talking, smart aleck attitudes of teen-age and younger children are not corrected by the parents.
When this happens these children take these problems into our school systems and other public forums and when they are rebuked by authority, their parents side with the children instead of adult leadership that are hired to do a job.
Respect begins in the home and this is where it should be taught. Parents do not need to leave it to the schools or day cares to raise their children and teach them their values. God commanded that we should honor our fathers and our mothers but to do this we must learn that from our fathers and our mothers.
GARY ANDREWS' devotional appears each week on the Church Pages of your Clarksdale Press Register. You can contact him at GARY@gadevotionals.com
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