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Your parents may or may not be still living. If they are still alive, God has blessed you, indeed. Whether you highly revere them or not, one thing is certain: you would not be here if it had not been for them. Jesus chided the Pharisees of his day for the way that they encouraged people to mistreat their parents. Jesus said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your tradition. The law says, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ And anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death. But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I cannot help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you. In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so, you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.’ ” Jesus not only expressed outrage for the way the Pharisees twisted the truth, He also made it clear that God wants us to honor and look out for parents. Of course, some parents are not ideal. Still, they transmitted to us physical life. For most of us, they also gave us the nurture that enabled us to survive and even thrive in the world. It is God’s intent that we honor them. Not only is it right for us to honor and care for them, but in so doing, we learn the value of transmitting godly principles to our own offspring.
