Are you angry that the government tells you to pay taxes, go to war? Are you angry that you got pulled over for speeding? Are you angry that your parents for screwing up your childhood or trying to control your life? Can’t I just get a little respect! Why can’t I live my life the way I want to?

I think in life we all ask these questions at some point in our life. I think about my parents’ generation. They were teenagers during the sixties, young adults during the seventies, and parents during the eighties. My father was a farm boy and my mother was the daughter of a RC Cola Salesmen from the city. My father respected his parents, but my mother did not respect her parents. Which parent do you think that I grew up respecting more, mom or dad? Stay with me, this took me 27 years to figure out. To this day, I respect my father more and to this day I struggle with respecting my mother. She did not respect her mother, her mother did not respect her mother, and I for many years did not respect my mother. Parents should have a place of honor in our lives, even if they are terrible parents. I would venture to say that murder is worse than disrespecting your parents. Gasp! Hear me out. If is it crueler to destroy a man’s name so he lives a disdained and ruined life until he finally dies than just killing him and getting it over with, how is destroying your parents reputation in the eyes of the generations that follow you be all that different? Why do you think it is crueler to lock a felon for life than to kill him? And let me tell you, a felon’s name is smeared forever unless it is cleared, and even then that bad name haunts him. If he has a lifetime of suffering as a result of his conviction and destruction of his good name, it would kinder to get it over with for that person. Imagine ruining the reputation of the authority over your life. As a child, your parents especially, then teachers, then police and then government and often times church too, your ideal of all of those is soured by what you learn from those that came before you. Do you think that you will have a great attitude towards these authorities if it is destroyed before you even know they really are? And then you follow in the steps of the ones you were raised by and mentored by in your young years, will you not be more acclimated to reject them. Then you raise children the same way those that came before you did. What will your children learn from you? Will their children learn the same from them? Do you see that joy is sucked out of generations after generations? Misery does ensue. That’s how old folks end up in homes where no one comes to visit them, because there is not honor and respect for them. People having no respect for their parents is why some people think it would be okay just euthanize those old folks instead of letting them suffer all alone. And though I do not agree with that end, I can see the logic as to how someone could get to that assumption. I think that is often one of the underlying issues of abortion and why many feel they have to be free to have one if a baby comes when they are not ready. A lack of honor in the family. Don’t get mad at me for saying this. If you have been in this situation I want you to know I don’t judge you. I love you. Even I have been faced with the question of what to do. If there is honor for parents, children often have more self worth and don’t have to resort to many situations that are dangers for any person: drugs, premarital sex, alcohol abuse, a wasting of time with things that in the end don’t matter, bad influences from peers, and so many other things. The list goes on and on. Let me ask you, do you value your parents from the heart? Not fear and not in the tedious way that is from just trying to be good. What if your parents had valued their parents, growing up would that have changed this for you? That sure would have changed some things for me. Valuing your parents helps you to love your own children and all the folks you encounter in life. It removes so much fear, like I had with my first child especially, that I simply would not be good enough to her because my mother wasn’t good enough to me. Valuing your parents from the deepest parts of your heart will help your children be reassured that you value them. And just as you stop yourself from talking bad about your parents, gently stop your children from doing it to you. Don’t let your children dishonor your spouse either. I guarantee that dysfunction will wane. This principal will help them in all areas of life: school, work, law enforcement, and governmental, and if you believe in God, it will help you there too. In fact, for many people, the only hope to honor your parents may be an act of God.

Honor is essential to a prosperous life. Honor even the government you are disenfranchised by. Am I saying to not stand up against wrong, no. It frees your heart of the burden of hatred and unforgiveness. And you will see more joy in your life than ever before, and I don’t mean the naïve kind. If your parents didn’t forgive and honor the authority over them and they were miserable, why make the same mistake, naively thinking that you are somehow more justified than they were.

Smile. Honoring and valuing people matters. I value and honor you. Let love abound in a deeper way. Don’t let your life be shallow. Go deep.