Honoring Your Parents (Ex. 20:12)

6/14/2008 7:41 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time           Focus:  Honoring one’s parents

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 20:12

            Message of the verses:  “12 ¶ ‘Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.’”

            Moses wrote this commandment from the Lord and one of its meanings is that if the nation of Israel would honor their parents they would stay in the Promised Land forever, but they did not stay in the Promised Land so it must have meant that one of the things that they did not do was follow this commandment.

            Paul picks up on this when writing to the Ephesians and takes this commandment and uses it to talk about individual believers, telling them that they are to honor their parents.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God’s timing is always perfect and it is no wonder that I am studying this commandment at this time when this subject has come up because of a possible job that would take us to Hawaii and Sandy and I are trying to figure out if she should stay home for a while and make sure that her mom and dad are situated ok at the nursing home due to the fact that she has had a setback from the disease that will probably take her life.  After reading this lesson I do not have a problem if she stays home for a while and makes sure that they are ok and then come over on her own.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

I trust the Lord that He will give wisdom to the situation at hand concerning this job in Hawaii.  The jobs that I have been working on with Tim have not turned out well for his company and I used to think that I may have had something to do with it, but last summer I found out that the job that Tim was doing in 2000 that was in Bowling Green did not work out well and he had to leave it too.  I realize that money is not the main issue here and that the Lord will care for us as He promised, but I find it hard to believe that because of the financial situation we find ourselves in that I should not take on this job.

Memory verse for the week:                       Colossians 4:12-13

12.    Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

13.    For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for all those in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

6/14/2008 8:13 AM