To honor our parents means to treat their position, wisdom, and needs with significant weight and importance, regardless of our age. It is not conditional in the sense that our parents did not need to be perfect. It honors the role and position that God placed us in at the moment of our conception.
When my father was being cared for by hospice during the last two weeks of his life, he was in a coma. I would sit by his bedside for hours at a time and sing hymns to him. Whether or not he was aware, I can only imagine, but I know that I was mindful of God’s manifested presence.
My dad was a great man, not only in my eyes, but in the town where he was born and lived his entire life, except for his time in the army during World War II. When we held his funeral, he had outlived all of his peers, yet there was an overflow crowd at his funeral in the Methodist church where he was a member all of his adult life.
My mother passed away six years later, and the same thing was true of her funeral. I am blessed to have the heritage I do, but it was a precious gift God gave me from the riches of his abundant grace.
Affirmation:
I am grateful for the 83 years I have lived and honor my family and friends who have stood by me through the highest mountains and darkest valleys I have experienced.