How to Honor Parents and Release God’s Favor
By Capazin Thornton
While school may give you knowledge and tools to help you earn a living, the Bible gives knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to teach you how to live a blessed life. The first essential of a blessed life is reverence and love for God. The second is honor of parents.
The command to obey and honor parents
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise; “that it might be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Eph 6:1-3)
To obey means to hear under as a subordinate, by implication compliance and submission. Honor means to prize, highly esteem, respect.
Honor parents, the first commandment with a promise
The first commandment with a promise is to honor parents. The promise is awesome: (1) that it might be well with you, and (2) you may live long on the earth.
On the other hand, people who fight, cuss, or otherwise disrespect their parents have all kinds of craziness in their lives and die young in freakish or violent ways.
God says, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Col 3:20, CJB).
Your parents are your life coach-managers with God-approved oversight of your life. They will protect you, guide you in the right path, help unlock your unique gifts and talents, and prepare you to live on your own and fulfill your highest destiny.
Jesus honored his parents
Mary and Joseph knew that Jesus was a very special child, destined to change the world. The archangel Gabriel announced to Mary before her supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit:
“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Lk 1:32-33)
Yet Jesus grew up as an ordinary child, but a blessed child. “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” (Luke 2:40)
Every year the family and other relatives went to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. One time, when Jesus was 12, after the celebration ended the family left to go home to Nazareth. They had traveled for a day before realizing Jesus was not with them.
They went back to Jerusalem and searched for three days before they found Jesus. He was in the temple amazing the rabbis with his understanding of God and the scriptures.
At 12, Jesus had a sense of his destiny. He asked his anxious parents, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Lk 2:49)
Nonetheless, he went home with his parents and submitted to their oversight. The result: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Lk 2:52).
We hear nothing else about Jesus until he was 30 years old, when he went to be baptized by his cousin John prior to beginning his public ministry.
Learn from parents and trust their judgment
Someone summed up the seasons of a person’s life like this:
| Age | Activity | |
| 0-30 | = | Learning and training years |
| 30-60 | = | Doing years |
| 60 and over | = | Imparting wisdom to others |
When you are school age, you are clearly in the learning and training phase of your life. Use this valuable time to learn all you can from your parents. And from pastors and teachers who want you to succeed.
And, while some of you may be counting the days until you are legally emancipated, wait until you have the blessing of your parents to leave home. Your parents love you and only want the best for you.
How to Honor Parents and Release God’s Favor
Honor your parents. Highly esteem, respect, prize, love, and subordinate to your parents in thought, word, and deed. Honoring them is the right thing to do. It pleases God and releases His favor into your life.
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[Scripture References: Prov 1:7; Deut 5:16; Eph 6:1-3; 2 Tim 3:2; Prov 6:20; Lk 1:26-38; Lk 2:40-52]
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Capazin Thornton is a Christian speaker, Bible teacher, and author in Orange County, California.
