Ephesians 6
Bible Passage: Ephesians 6
We are at the last chapter of a relatively short book. The final chapter of Ephesians teaches us our roles as children/parents, bondservants/masters.
I shall focus on the “Children and Parents” portion of my writing today.
Children
In my teens(perhaps this applies to many other teens too), my relationship with my mother was a love-hate one. I remember how I hated her at times (well most times), and in other times, how I felt she was the bestest mother in the whole world.
Now I cherish my parents so much more as I do not live with them anymore. In retrospect, I really regretted those times I added many gray hairs to their scalp, or gave them heartaches.
The first verse tells us we who are children should obey our parents, and this is the fifth commandment, to honour our parents.
Recently there were a couple of news about how adult children treated their parents badly. A few days ago, an 82 year old man was found in JB. He was abandoned by his children, and without knowing where to go, he became emaciated and was filthy. In today’s news, a 40 year old man bashed his elderly father up because his father urinated/defecated outside the toilet.
It is very appalling hearing such horror stories, isn’t it? We ask ourselves how people could be so heartless to abuse their parents.
How about ourselves?
Of course I don’t believe any of us will ever hit our parents physically. But I am sure we can recall times when we are rude towards them, shout at them, vent our angers against them, impatient towards them…and the list goes on.
Sometimes I get impatient/irriated with my mother because she tends to talk ALOT whenever I go back home. But then I realise it is only because she seldom see me so she “updates” me with her incessant chatter.
As we grow up and move on to the next phase of life – husband, career, kids etc.., parents tend to be relatively lower in our priority lists. I suppose that is just the way of life unfortunately, but let us all make time if possible to spend time with our parents, even though just a few hours, and talk to them more often.
Parents
I am not a parent yet so if you are a parent reading this, please leave your comment!
May God lead and guide us to have blessed and happy families.
Blessed Sabbath!
2 Comments
Yellow parrot
Coincidentally, I heard a good sermon on the Fifth Commandment today. Later when it is posted, you can download it at http://www.tjcsj.org. The preacher reminded us that this is the first of the commandments on Christians’ relationship with man. It is not enough just to maintain a good relationship with God alone. We must start by improving our relationship with our families. You cannot rationalize e.g. since you have done this for me, I shall do that for you. Just obey the commandment.
Next, he highlighted that this is “the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth”. Aha! Additional reward!
However, we require “spiritual maturity” to carry out this commandment. The preacher went on to elaborate on this.
He also noted wryly that whilst there is a surfeit of books on how to care for kids, there are few on how to care for your parents, resulting in misunderstandings.
You will find that it does not take much to bring a smile onto your parents’ faces!
Happy listening!
Shalom
Agree with Yellow Parrot – especially the last two sentences.