Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Exodus 20:12

God’s commandment to honor our parents is for our physical and spiritual good. Throughout the Bible, He gives us examples of the blessings and benefits to those who honor their parents.

Though some are so sin-sick that they have lost the capacity to parent another, still, the vast majority of parents want only the best for their children, though, like duplicitous Rebekah, they may not always go about it in the right way (see the pain her trickery caused her family in Genesis 27). Perhaps that’s why God tells us to “honor” our parents, but stops short of commanding us to “obey” them.

With honor comes empathy. We often see our parents mirrored in ourselves.

Magic Johnson once mentioned that God blessed him with two unbelievable parents. He went on to say, “I have the smile and charisma of my mother and the big heart of my mom because she wants to save the world and help the world, so I am just like her.”

When you honor your parents you honor God. And when you honor God, He honors you.