honor and obey

Reading through this black and white composition notebook that I jotted down hundreds of different quotes and thoughts from the my get-away a few weeks ago...

I was trying to pick another one to share with you all... and since it came up in conversation this weekend I figured it's a good one to share with you all today....

The difference between honoring and obeying.... 

Watch out now! Those are two heavy words that I really don't like using... maybe it's my issues with authority... growing up these kind of words would make me run the opposite direction, kind of like the word submission (I'll save that for blog of it's own), back to the point... honor and obey....

Obey is the action and Honor is an issue of the heart

I scribbled this down in my notebook and put a big star next too it, I knew it was something I would need to come back to for myself and my children... they share their mother's authority issues 

(remember caught not taught). 

Children are called to obey their parents

Colossians 3:20 says, "Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord"

Now I can't be the only one who has told my children. "the Bible says you are to OBEY your parents...."

Go to your room, 

pick up your toys, 

don't talk mean to your sister, 

be nice to your brother, 

get your finger out of our nose... 

on and on and on.... 

And when they listen.. this my friends is the action of obeying. 

but I don't want my children just to obey me, following my commands as a sort of dictator (well, yes sometimes that is nice), I want them to understand my words are teaching them something, out of love I am teaching them, yes telling them to stop picking their nose is down out of love.... but I want my children to honor me. 

Honor comes from the heart and yes, 

children are called to honor their parents; 

Ephesians 6:2 says, "Children honor your father and mother" 

While I can tell my children to go pick up their toys and most likely they will do it... but will they put their things away orderly with an attitude that honors you as their parents or are they slamming things into drawers, huffing and puffing about what you have asked of them?

I told my six year old, "I am glad you obey me, but I want you to honor me too." 

This word, honor, is not one I thought of as having a place in everyday conversations with my children, 

I'm realizing just how necessary it is though.

Are we not called to obey and honor our Heavenly Father?

Now, the hard part, are you leading by example? 

not just obeying but honoring your Earthly parents? 

how about your Heavenly Father?

If  you ask me to obey part is easy...

Honoring comes from within, it's the emotion in which we obey. 

And we are always leading them by example. The best example I can give my children is for my heart to honor God and my parents as they ask me to obey.... big gulp.. as that was even a bit hard to pluck out on the keyboard (these authority issues may be bigger than I realized). 

Just another thought from the black and white composition notebook, 

I figured someone else may need to receive this message just as much as I did...