Christian greetings to all of you! I hope that you have all been having a good fall/autumn. For those of you in the USA I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. J God has blessed us so much with so many good things, we have no reason to complain…

Thank you very much for your replies, Sarah H., J.C., Marie, Flaviu, and Vanessa B.

The question was "what does ‘Honor thy Father and thy Mother...’ mean?". Well, I think honoring your parents means to respect them and obey them because they usually know what is best for you. We should do that because our parents are probably the only people who have the most interest in helping you so we should not throw away the good they have to give us through their experience, age and general wisdom. Parents not only can see better than we, what we need to change and improve but they care about us enough to tell us and help us to overcome our problems. To honor our parents means not only to obey them in relation to your own concerns, but also to stand up for them and to help them carry their burdens and all the problems they have to confront. Our parents protect us from many harmful and hurtful things so we in our turn should protect them from what is in our power. Here is an example of how we can help our parents: we can all help our parents in the problems in their lives directly or indirectly. We have the power to help them by being willing to listen to them and having a good attitude instead of arguing with them about trivial things. Our parents, particularly since they are Christians, usually know what is right better than we do because of their experience and also because they are going to be trying to help us do God's will. We can cause a lot of time of worry to our parents which they could spend on their work instead, but since they care so much for us and what happens to us they often spend time trying to save us from the problems we have gotten ourselves into. So when we are not cooperative we are just wasting their time. Following the 5th commandment is both a blessing to the children and the parents. God has promised to bless us and give us long life if we honor our parents, but I think that this is not only a blessing for us but for our parents as well. God bless.

To honor thy father and thy mother is one of the Ten Commandments of God's law, a law that Jesus in John 14:15 asks us to obey out of love. What does it mean to honor our parents? To me it means to love them and respect them in a similar but not on the same level as we do God. In a similar because we would love them and respect them. We would show them affection and love and do our part to help them, like they do with us. We are to respect them, doing what they ask us to do, and not screaming or shouting or talking back at them, or disobeying their rules and wishes. We do this, of loving and respecting them, because we know that they love us and always act for our best. Now it can't be on the same level as God, because we are to love God above all things and anyone. Sometimes parents could be wrong or not be of the faith and in those cases it would be ok to not obey their every decision, if it's a decision that goes against God's ways. But even if that's the case we are to respect them and show them love. God's plan to obey our parents is part of His plan in creating a family, where love rules, and the relationships between parents and children are a reflection of His love and His desire for us to be part of His family, He being our Heavenly Father and we being His children. He even motivates us by giving a promise and an added blessing in that commandment, that "our days will be extended in the land that the Lord our God gives us".

We should try always to please our parents, even when we don't see why they ask us to do things, unless, of course, it is clearly against the Scriptures. Honoring them also means being respectful and recognizing their authority over us, if we are still minors. Actually, I believe that I must obey them as long as I live in their house, even if that is after I am 18.

Honor thy Father and thy Mother... Well it's one of the most difficult tasks some people will ever encounter. It's really hard this day and age to try to have friends in the world and at the same time please your parents, simply because the temptations are there and you want to go ahead and go through them but your parents tell you not to ... why? Is it because they’re just annoying and just like to yell at you all the time? Well not exactly, it's more like they have been there, they went through it all and well...they love you to death and they don't want you to make the same mistakes as they did. NO ONE ON EARTH WILL EVER LOVE YOU AS MUCH AS YOUR PARENTS. They’re willing to die if necessary to save your life... Just think about that. So I think in return we as they’re children can do the little things they ask of us and never forget to tell them the simple ... "I love you".

Thank you all for your answers! I agree with all of you. To honor our parents is to love, respect, and obey them. Of course, as already mentioned, we cannot obey them if what they require of us will dishonor God. Our parents have been where we are now. Sometimes we think they are too old, etc., but they have gone through many experiences and have gained wisdom from them, which we will benefit from listening to. And God blesses us when we respect our parents. God bless you all as you seek to "honor thy father and thy mother…"!

Please send in your answers before or on December 1st so they can be published in the next issue.

Do you have any stories, poems, recipes, prayer requests, etc. that you would like to share?

"The Lord has appointed the youth to be His helping hand."

God bless you all and I look forward to hearing from you!

Kyla

"God’s Helping Hand" Editor