MAIN TEXT: Ex. 20:12
MEMORY:
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Ex.20:12)

The honour mindset is the mindset that makes you to train your children to attract the blessings of God by honouring their parents, both biological and spiritual. If you possess this mindset, you will do the following:

Demonstrate the mindset by honouring your own parents.
If you want your children to honour you, they may need to see it in the way you honour your own parents. When you speak to your parents, do you accord them respect? If you do so, your children are watching you. When your parents advise you, how do you take it? Sometimes, the advice they give may be at variance with current realities, but the way you discard the idea matters. Don’t forget that a time will come too that you will give outdated advice to your children in the future, will you be happy if they discard the idea as if you are a fool?

Let your children value your role and sacrifices in their lives.
They must know the reason why certain decisions are taken concerning them so that they will appreciate your role in their lives. Let them have a feeling of some of the sacrifices you made concerning them.

Don’t diminish the value of the efforts of your spouse over the children.
Comparatively, you may have the privilege of contributing more than your spouse into the life of the children materially or otherwise. However, you must not consequently make the children to look down on the meager efforts of your spouse. When you are running down your spouse for the children to value you more, it often backfires and reduces your own value.

Make them to believe that parents will normally not lead them astray.
You must earn the trust of your children enough for them to believe that you cannot lead them astray.

They must learn to accept the discipline of their parents.
Your children must learn to see your discipline as an act of love. Often, lack of understanding leads to rebellion among especially teenagers. You must teach them that discipline is an act of love; they must not interpret it as a sign of cruelty or hatred.

Let There Be Unity Of Purpose Between You And Your Spouse.
One of the ways through which you can demonstrate the honour mindset is by being united in purpose with your spouse. If there is an issue of discipline at home and you take different stands and are openly antagonistic of each other, you will be sending the wrong message that will diminish your value in the reckoning of your children.

It is important to know that as you teach them to honour their biological parents, you should also do for their spiritual parents. Their spiritual heads are to be honoured for them not to miss their spiritual and material blessings.

DISCUSSION POINTS WITH YOUR SPOUSE
• In what ways can we model the honour mindset in this home?

PRAYER
LORD, teach me to train my children in a way that will make them to honour both their biological and spiritual parents in the future in Jesus’ name.

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