Wisdom Formed by Generations
Ray and I recently paid a visit to a new local business located on our town square. As always, we were enlightened by the stories of the friendly, smiling owner.
Our county courthouse sits in the center of the square. The store owner told us how great business is on court days.
He also told us about an unusual inmate he recently saw trying with difficulty to climb the courthouse steps to appear in court. The inmate was a woman in shackles. The law officers who escorted her struggled to help her ascend the stairs because she was over ninety.
Later the business owner was able to ask someone in the know what her story was. This was her crime: she smuggled drugs into the jail to give to her incarcerated husband.
Yesterday I had a chance to visit with Titus, the homeschool graduate who serves as our fulfillment specialist and videographer, while we worked on a project together. The subject of the new business came up and he wondered if court days are good days for business. As I told him what the owner had told me recently, I shared the story about the elderly woman ascending the stairs in shackles and told him the nature of her crime.
Titus responded with wisdom born out of the multi-generational faithfulness of his family. I know his godly parents and grandparents and was blessed to be in the presence of his godly great-grandmother before she died. Titus spoke of the necessity of one generation after another honoring father and mother and of the blessings God has promised to people who do.
Titus is right. I encourage you to commit yourself to teaching your children to honor you and your husband and to showing them how by the ways you honor your own. The promise is too precious not to take hold of it — in your generation and in theirs.
Honor your father and mother
(which is the first commandment with a promise),
so that it may be well with you,
and that you may live long on the earth.
Ephesians 6:2