Honor Thy Parents (Commandment the Fifth)

Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12
The first of the moral laws for living on this earth given by God in the Ten Commandments is the easiest one to fall from. This one is basic to all other social relationships and the foundation for decent human society. The first true social interactions happens with the parents and siblings. There are many Scriptures which speak of honoring our parents which means there is no limit to the honor that is due our parents. Children must not shame their parents, bring heartache or pain, and never be angry towards their parents.
The Apostle Paul restated this commandment in Ephesians when speaking of what Jesus fulfilled and what He requires of us. He also says,
 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)
The Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are wisdom books which hold moral and ethical truths that are still poignant to today’s society. Why have we failed? We failed because of our love. Love has turned from Godly things to worldly advances. Love has changed the people in the world. We have redefined love. It is one thing to show love for one another but another thing to ignore God’s great love for His creation. How has this happened???
Brothers and Sisters, Sons and Daughters, we have dishonored our parents by failing to uphold and require of the youth, the 5th Commandment.    
One of the problems today is that parents are bowing to the children. This world has gone from respecting elders to “let the child explore things and they will learn on their own”.  By doing this, we have lost the art of our basic rights as parents regarding proper teaching and disciplining (the whole thing known as rearing) the children in the way of the Lord. We have become desensitized through the whims and teachings of child psychologists who have given more power to children causing a lack of discipline, respect, and other godly values that we, as Christians, are ordained (under strict obligation) to observe and teach. We have failed our parents by not following their teachings which were of God. Yes there has been mistranslations and nowhere in Scripture does it actually say to spare the rod (physical discipline with an implement) spoil the child.  The rod spoken of in Scripture is the teachings, the wisdom of God. If we do not teach the children right, then we have spoiled their chances of being right with God. We have to reign ourselves in and honor our parents by presenting tough love to our children through godly wisdom.
Why have we had so many incidents with children doing wrong? It has gotten worse in the last 20 years. Some children were not taught right. If they were taught then the follow up and constant observance did not happen. The thing is, we let society take over once the child is in school. Children are becoming engulfed in outside negative influences from other children who were not reared in the ways of the Father and adults who think they know what children need. Disrespect, sexualization of women, and mockery are society’s pull into acceptance. Sin is the norm. I wonder what happened? Did someone’s parents go overkill on church traditions instead of seeing what Scripture really says thereby loosing the child into disbelief as an adult? Or, was there a free thinking parent that let everything go too far? I mean really, parents are even being sued by their own children for what they consider to be “neglect”. Come on folks.  
Dr. James Dobson addressed D.C. on the National Day of Prayer with some perfect yet condemning thoughts. He let them know that all these recent immoral and thoughtless decisions are corrupting our youth. He really let the people listening understand that the U.S. needs to straighten their act up and take many things into consideration including the media and politics. He explained that parents need their rights back; also the media and LGBT communities need to back off because they are causing mental, emotional, and spiritual breakdown of the children; manipulating them into believing they are the norm. 
​          Recent studies prove that children want more parent involvement in a parent/child relationship not the parent/child as friends. Children in church want more adult involvement in their lives after youth group to keep a good solid foundation to be built upon.  Parents and elders of the church are neglecting one of the precepts of raising the youth
                We need to kick this country’s preverbal butt. Show a renewed love and compassion built on God to our children and let it flow outward. We need to fight evil with love. Show a different form of compassion never seen before so that the sinners see their folly and Jesus can revive us again.