Honour your elders

Parents are great. Also foster parents, grandparents and the elderly in the community. Any older person who gave their time, effort (and, quite possibly, money) to give us the best start they could, is worthy of our love and attention.

Sure, we may love our caring parental and grandparental figures, but do they know that? Taking them for granted can, unfortunately, be far too easy to do. But God is very keen on us making the effort to honour them; it's even one of his ten commandments (see Exodus 20:12). And 1 Peter 5:5 NIV says, 'You who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because "God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble."' Do we sometimes ignore God when he asks us to honour someone? Do we have an older family member in hospital, a care home or just living alone? Or a parent who's so busy providing for us? We may not realise just how much they treasure us taking an hour to be with them or helping them with a task.

The truth is, most of us are busy. But even those who use their 'busy'-ness doing things for others can have a blind spot when it comes to their 'oldies'. And yet, God thinks of it as so important.



So what now? Guess what? It's the weekend coming up. Maybe organise to spend time with a parent or grandparent or elderly person in your life? Or call them if you're physically too far away.





— SCRIPTURE —

'Submit yourselves to your elders.' 1 Peter 5:5 NIV
— SOULFOOD —

Nah 1-3, Matt 27:1-10, Ps 133, Pro 18:17-20