Dad, you don’t need to answer the question, I think now I know how wars begin!” There is humor to the story, but hu man tragedy to the idea which is just as prevelant and realistic in countless homes. For happy homes are the ex ception . . . not the rule. The sad part of it is, it is also true in our church homes. You ask this question, to the heartbreak of any pastor. Now, as far as the Fifth Command ment itself is concerned, to honor fa ther and mother, we as Christian par ents must realize that what God is to the adult the parent must be to the child. We don’t have time to go into this fully, however, as one example, how does God discipline His children? He does it in love. He chastens us, but it is always with a rod of mercy. How do we discipline our children when they do something wrong? Most of us will have to be frank and admit that we do it in the stormy protest of the moment, often forgetting the Scriptur al injunction to provoke not our chil dren to wrath. And what is true with discipline is true in every area of life. What God is te us, we are to be to our children. What patience, love, and understanding this suggests. Now, the word “honor” means far more than mere obedience, or giving a place of superiority. The thought be hind honoring the parents is holding in reverence and sacred trust the loved one. I full well realize, our mail re veals it, that in some lives parents have been alcoholics, or derelicts, or other things which we would not ever care to mention, and we may not be able to hold them in honor or respect in that sense — but certainly we can do for them that which God would have us do. For children who honor their parents will find that their children in turn will honor them, and they themselves will be saved from the prac tice of those things about which a warning is given in the remaining five Commandments. In a recent issue of The Ladies Home Journal, there appeared an article en
titled, “I Reared a Criminal.” One could almost feel the tears in the heart of the mother as she wrote, “We loved him, but his father was too busy to be with him when he was young. I couldn’t bring myself to punish him for misbehaviour. We sided against his teachers when they complained about his work and conduct in school. As he grew up, he would hardly discuss the time of day with us. We gave him money so that he wouldn’t steal again. I wept when the police called and asked me to turn my boy over to them. As I watched them search him, my life seemed to end.” What human trag edy, repeated daily across our land. Such families, whether or not the chil dren are ever arrested, bring reproach upon themselves because there isn’t the proper respect or relationship. The greatest • enemies of the home are those things which at times may seem so harmless and then again ever so necessary. I think most pastors will agree that they are concerned, vitally concerned, about the total fam ily relationship. Our homes are going to pieces. The question comes, has the church usurped too much time anji called away the parents more often than is necessary? Is there a proper perspective in keeping adults in the home where they can work and de velop Christian graces with the chil dren? If you want an arresting, realistic shock concerning your busy activ ities, ask yourself, “Is what I am do ing something that will really matter ten years from now?” If it is not, then how much better that time could be profitably spent with the children. As a matter of fact, one of the graphic signs of the times in which we are living is that of the crumbling battlements of the home. The nation’s corner stone is the hearthstone. The home is the last basic unit of society. If we lose this, we will have lost the most important bulwark of freedom and all that is embodied in our way of life—it is the stabilizing power for the entire economy of our nation. Read II Timo thy 3:3. 28
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