Honor (respect, obey, care for) . . . your mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land the Lord your God gives you. (Exodus 20:12 Amplified)
The commands of God are often easier to read than to follow. Mother-daughter relationships can be challenging. I have had my own struggles.
The road to understanding, accepting and honoring my mother has been smoother since I became a mother. I began to see through my own experience as a parent of only one child how one might say and do the things that my mother, who had 4 children, did.
In the end, God needed to break my heart for my mother, to see her in truth, not colored by my needs, desires, disappointments. To give me a heart for her, God needed to cut mine.
As I pressed in to God to learn to be a better daughter, God reminded me of the command–honor your mother.
It isn’t a suggestion; it’s a command. It isn’t something I can do when I feel like it; it is required of me by God. I guess He knew there’d be days when we’d want to give up, when disappointments and unmet expectations would threaten to crush us like bugs.
On a day like today, when my heart is overwhelmed by love for my mother, for all that she is and all she went through in her motherhood journey, it is easy to love and to treat her well.
On the difficult days, I fall back on the command. I honor her because that is my reasonable service to God.
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