Speak Well of Them

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching. —Proverbs 1:8

Practically speaking, how can we honor our parents? We can honor (or dishonor) them in the way we speak of them to others. I remember getting ready to leave with a friend for a week at a Christian camp when I was twelve. My friend’s mother had taken us to meet the bus. As we were getting ready to board, she took us aside and gave some parting words of exhortation that I have never forgotten.

“I know it’s fashionable for many young people to talk negatively about their parents,” she said. “But,” she continued in an earnest tone of voice, “I never want to hear of either of you ever speaking critically that way.”

As I look back on the conversation, I realize that this mother was not trying to protect herself. She understood the seriousness of dishonoring our parents and wanted to protect us from the inevitable consequences of doing so.

To this day, that wise woman’s words have motivated me to speak well of my parents.

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Singled Out for Him: Embracing the gift, the blessings, and the challenges of singleness 

©2023 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Scripture taken from The CSB