Honor

I have been pondering this subject for quite some time. Consider these excerpts from Building Christian Character by Blair Adams (Copyright 1992 by Truth Forum)

Ephesians 6:2-3
2Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
3That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

"Honor, the foundation from which all other elements of Christian character arise, refers primarily to a condition of the heart and mind, an inner attitude that inevitably manifests itself in outer words, actions and demeanor. A child who holds honor in his heart towards God, his parents and others to whom it is due will not simply try to appear to have Christian character traits, but he will genuinely strive to attain them in his heart and manifest them in his life. If we begin by truly honoring those to whom honor is due, then all the other elements of Christian character will come forth in our lives."

A little further on in this chapter...

"When children truly see that their obedience to parents equals obedience to God, and that their fear of their parents' displeasure becomes the fear of God, then they are well on the way to becoming God's disciples."

and...

"The foundation of disciplining our children is not in trying to teach the child masses of isolated rules and regulations, although they certainly need a clear pattern for their behavior, but to teach them to respect godly authority and to respond with immediate obedience to the demands of their parents and all those who express God's authority, that is , to come into proper relationship to God-ordained authority."

Finally...

"So we can see exactly how a child's honoring of his father and mother will bring him long life: honor lies at the base of God's efficacious exercise of authority in our lives. Authority stands at the basis of discipline. And discipline in turn becomes the basis of the life that love brings. When authority is motivated by love, it brings a discipline to bear upon the child to mold him into God's image. This discipline brings fear, fear respect, respect silence, silence listening, listening hearing, hearing obedience, obedience wisdom and wisdom life. So we see that the foundation of life springs forth from godly fear and wisdom (Prov. 14:27). These characteristics constitute the qualities of honor.

"We can also see why Solomon could conclude:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Eccles. 12:13-14)

"If we truly teach our children -in the love of God- to fear Him, then they will fulfill their whole duty to God. Truly, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10) When we honor our parents, their discipline will bring us those characteristics that will impart God's life to us and make us vessels through whom that life can be imparted to others."