Week 13 – Exodus 20:12 (Part I)
Receive and Reflect (20 mins):
Reflect on your time since you last met. In what ways have you been struck by the goodness of God?
Pray and thank God for being the source of all that is good, and who has promised to turn even the worst and ugliest parts of our lives for our good as we follow Him. Ask that He would speak to you.
Read (20 mins):
Read Exodus 20:12
In God’s good design for humanity, He set up family structures for the growth and flourishing of individuals and the world. Our parents are most often the first authority figures we experience in life, and in a time when we are the most helpless and vulnerable. It is from our first caregivers that we learn what it means to love, to trust and to honour. From them, we begin our education in human interaction and build our expectations and habits for relationship that should enable to form and build healthy families and societies as we mature. It is from our parents that we receive our first impressions of God, and it is in this relationship that we first learn what it means to honour and respect God-given authority.
Sadly, God’s good design for us has been broken by sin. Parents not only reflect God incompletely or imperfectly, but they can have deeply negative and even destructive impact on their children. Still, there are no exceptions in this command bar one: in honouring our parents, we cannot dishonour God.
There may be deep works of healing that some of us need and seeking healing dishonours neither God nor our parents. There may be ways in which some of us need to set clear boundaries against continued sinful behaviours towards us which also can be done without dishonouring God or our parents. But neglectful, hurtful, destructive parents are still parents who God asks us to honour.
In this session, we will focus on the positive aspects of honouring our parents.
- Share a favourite memory you have of/with your parents. In what ways are you grateful for them? What have you learnt from them?
As we mature from child to teen to young adult and adult, all our relationships should change including the relationship we have with our parents. An appropriate interaction with a child (e.g. setting and enforcing a bedtime) would be a generally inappropriate interaction with an adult (note that this is just inappropriate, not sinful in any way). Change is difficult for both parents and children but in this situation, it is perhaps children who more readily perceive and desire change.
- How can we honour our parents, even in times when we may be frustrated that they have not acknowledged our growth/maturing? What may be some ways in which we can honour them whilst helping them to change?
- Reflect back on your relationship with your parents. Have there been times when you have disagreed with their approach or advice that you now see was good and wise? How can this affect your frustration/disagreement with them now?
Respond (20 mins):
Spend a few minutes in personal reflection. What is the Holy Spirit impressing on your heart?
Take time to share how the Holy Spirit is challenging you. How can you be accountable to each other? Consider keeping a record for the purposes of prayer and accountability.
Pray for each other.