The Good Life Study: Honor Your Parents

The fifth episode of "The Good Life" deals with the command to honor our father and mother. Our parents are our first neighbors. It’s through them that we come to understand the world and our place in it. Their example and impact – whether good or bad – sets the stage for the rest of our lives. Perhaps that’s why the fifth commandment prioritizes the relationship between parents and their children. Children should honor their parents. Parents should be worthy of honor. The way we live with our first neighbors will determine so much about the way we live in every other neighborhood.

Far from being a command merely for children, this command also speaks to parents. If children should honor their parents, then parents need to be people worth honoring. Children often mimic their parents. From the way they look to the way they carry themselves, so much of who they are is modeled on what they saw in their parents. Godly parents should leave a spiritual life that their children hope to aspire to, as well. God has given us ‘weight’ as parents; our greatest desire should be to carry that weight well.

GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What was your biggest takeaway from the video teaching time? What normally comes to mind when you think of this commandment? How did this week’s study challenge some of your preconceived ideas?

2. Read Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16. Do you think it’s significant that this command is only stated in the positive? Why do you think it carries a promise with it? How do we follow this command today? What are some ways we, as the church, can show proper honor to parents?

3. How does honoring our parents change at different life stages? What does it look like for young children vs. young adults, etc.? How can we continue to honor our parents into adulthood? What does it look like to honor them when they are gone?

4. What weight does this commandment put on parents? What responsibility do fathers and mothers have to be people worthy of honor? What were some ways you saw this exhibited in your own parents? How did you try to impress this on your own children?

5. Read Ephesians 6:1-4. How do parents teach their children – intentionally or unintentionally – about God? What spiritual lessons did your parents teach you (whether by positive or negative example)? How has their example affected you?

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