A Legacy Of Honor Series

But let’s just admit right up front that we have a hard time understanding exactly how this promise works in real life. I know that Steve Ponzo has a friend that just died a couple weeks ago at the age of 27, leaving behind a wife and two young children after a long bout with disease. Does that mean he didn’t honor his parents? Of course not. From everything I know about this young man, he was a very godly man who both honored his parents and built that kind of character into his own children.

This promise is a general principle that children who obey and honor their parents will have a life that is richer in both quality and quantity than if they choose not to do that. However, because we live in a world that has been corrupted by sin that doesn’t mean that those who obey their parents will automatically live longer or have less problems in this world than those who don’t. Warren Wiersbe helps us to understand this promise better when he writes:

God enriches the life of the obedient child no matter how long he may live on the earth. Sin always robs us; obedience always enriches us.

To fully understand this promise, we also need to keep in mind that our life here on this earth is not the full extent of our life. We’ve already seen that honoring our parents is an integral part being a follower of Jesus. And for the follower of Jesus Christ, we not only have the benefit of living abundant life on this earth right now, we also have the promise that we’ll reign with Christ here on earth for a thousand years and then live for eternity on the new earth. That is a life that is certainly rich in both quality and quantity.

However, I believe this promise is not just a promise that those who honor their parents will live for along time, but also that the followers of Christ who live like that will create a legacy that provide a foundation for future generations. By obeying and honoring our parents and by helping our young people to develop those habits in their lives, we can help raise up a generation of Christ followers who will also obey and honor their heavenly Father.

Let’s be the generation who plants the trees, so that future generations can get the shade.