Honoring Our Aging Parents

Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. — Proverbs 23:22 Some years ago, as our nearly adult daughter was on the verge of “leaving the nest,” I mentioned something about the fifth commandment’s call for children to obey their parents. She looked me in the eye and asked, “Does the Bible really teach that adult children need to obey their parents?”That was a great question, and I’ve often thought about it since then. On the one hand, she was right: as children grow into adults, the dynamics of obedience to their parents will change. Yet the instruction for children to honor and respect their parents, regardless of their age, remains at the core of the commandment.In this section of Proverbs we find the helpful advice to “listen to your father”—and this points to the fact that through experience gained from years of life’s ups and downs, our parents may well have significant wisdom to offer us. We also find here a wise reminder not to dismiss or neglect our aging parents. In fact, for many of us today, caring for aging parents can be one of the most challenging seasons of our lives. Yet as God placed our early care into the hands of our parents, he also places the care of our elderly parents into our hands.May we strive to do our best to love and honor our parents throughout our entire lives, as God calls us to do.  Father, thank you for the gift of parents. Help us to obey them when we are young, and to honor and respect them throughout our lives. Amen.