“Honor your father and your mother so that your life will be long on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12 (CEB)
The neighbor commandments begin in a surprising place: not with a stranger, but with the people who raised you. Honor your father and mother. In the ancient world, this was about more than manners. It was about how a whole society cares for the generation that cared for it. Strip out honor between generations, and the fabric of a community frays at its oldest edge.
Honoring is not the same as agreeing, and it does not mean pretending a hard relationship was easy. It means refusing to discard people once they are no longer useful to us. Today, think of someone who came before you, a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, a mentor. What would it look like to honor them this week, in a word, a call, a visit, or simply remembering out loud what they gave you?
God, thank you for the people who shaped me, even the imperfect ones. Teach me to honor them, and to build a community that does not discard its own. In Jesus’ name. Amen.