Honor
I couldn't believe what he had just suggested. Neither could the other seven guys at our table.
"Why don't you call him right now?"
"What? Call my father?"
"Yeah! You just told us what a good father he was and how much you appreciated him, but you'd never really told him."
We were all still stirred up after Lisa Bevere shared a tear-jerking story with us at our church's men's conference. As her father was nearing death, God had led her to tell him “You were a great dad.’”
As we started encouraging my friend to follow suit, he finally agreed. "OK, I guess I'll call him."
So right there at our table, surrounded by hundreds of other men, he pulled out his phone and called his father.
"Dad, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. I love you. You were a good dad, and
I just wanted you to know how much you mean to me."
His eyes filled with tears. Then the tears turned into uncontrollable sobs as he told his father how much he loved him.
That moment etched itself into our hearts.
I
knew we couldn't keep this to ourselves, so as our senior pastor and conference leader headed back to the stage, I stopped him and told him what had happened.
He returned to the stage for the mic, then jumped down to our table, put the microphone in front of me, and asked me to tell the story.
As I recounted the powerful phone call, the men cheered, their eyes filling with tears.
Then our pastor turned to my friend. "Is there anything you'd like to add?"
"Yeah," he said. "Joel left out just one thing."
"At the end of our conversation, my father asked me, 'Do you still love me even though I'm still a Democrat?'"
The whole place erupted in laughter!
What had begun with tears ended with cheers and laughter. But God wasn't finished.
At the same time my friend had been calling his father, three generations of another family were sitting together at a nearby table—a grandfather, a father, and his 17-year-old son.
The father had forgiven his dad for years of hurt. And as everyone watched, he got up, walked over to his father, and embraced him. It was the kind of hug that made you wonder if it had ever happened before.
That's when the sobs began, and tears flowed throughout the room as hundreds of men witnessed this extraordinary moment of reconciliation and restoration.
Then our pastor put the microphone in front of the 17-year-old, who declared,
"I just got to see the generational curse in my family broken."
Three generations. One embrace. And a profound demonstration of what forgiveness and honor can accomplish.
One man expressed appreciation. Another extended forgiveness. Both chose to honor their fathers—and both demonstrated the extraordinary power of honor expressed.
What happened at those two tables brought home the truth that honor begins with a decision, comes alive when we act on it, and can leave an impact far beyond anything we imagined.
Honor Is a Choice
The apostle Paul reminds us of what God said through Moses:
"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise—"so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." — Ephesians 6:2–3
The Hebrew word for honor comes from a word meaning weighty or significant. To honor someone is to give weight to their value and importance. To dishonor them is to treat them lightly, as though they don't matter.
Honor doesn't mean someone is perfect or that we approve of everything they've done. It means we choose to recognize and elevate their worth rather than diminish it.
Honor looks for ways to lift people up. Dishonor looks for ways to put them down.
Our parents may have different opinions, values, or ways of looking at life. Some may have disappointed us deeply or caused painful wounds. And many were carrying wounds of their own.
As the saying goes, hurt people hurt people.
But whether our parents were wonderful, deeply flawed, or somewhere in between, God's Word still calls us to honor them.
And that choice is not just about how we see them. It's about how we respond to them.
Honor Is Expressed
Jesus confronted the religious leaders of His day because they claimed to honor their parents while finding religious excuses not to provide for them (Matthew 15:4–6).
Their words sounded honorable, but their actions told a different story.
Honor isn't just something we believe or feel. Honor is something we do.
So how do we honor our fathers and mothers?
Tell them. Don't assume they know you appreciate them. Thank them for what they did right. Express your love and respect while you still have the opportunity.
Forgive them. Colossians 3:13 tells us to forgive as the Lord forgave us. Release resentment over past offenses. Forgiveness doesn't excuse wrongdoing, but it frees us from allowing yesterday's wounds to control tomorrow's relationships. And when we've wronged our parents, we need to ask for their forgiveness, too.
Show them. Honor them with your time, attention, and care. Listen to them. Help them when they need it. As 1 John 3:18 reminds us, love isn't just expressed in words but “with actions and in truth.”
Honor that is never expressed may never be experienced.
Honor Has Consequences
God didn't merely command us to honor our parents. He promised that honoring them would bring blessing.
And that promise is part of something even bigger.
"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments." — Deuteronomy 7:9
One of those commandments is to honor our father and mother!
The honor we show our parents carries God's promise of blessing—a blessing that reaches beyond us to our children, our grandchildren, and generations we may never live to see.
We can't change what was handed down to us, but we can change what we hand down to others.
And when that legacy of honor and blessing is passed from generation to generation, it becomes something even greater—a dynasty of faith that can continue for a thousand generations.
Honor Beyond Our Parents
Honor doesn't stop with our parents.
Romans 12:10 tells us to “Honor one another above yourselves.”
First Peter 2:17 tells us to “Show proper respect to everyone.”
Honor is a Kingdom principle. It's how we treat our parents, our families, our neighbors, our leaders, and one another.
Honor is a choice we make, a love we express, and a legacy we leave.
Is there someone you've needed to honor but haven't?
Perhaps it's your father or mother. Perhaps it's someone you've needed to thank—or forgive.
A dynasty of blessing can begin with something as simple as picking up the phone.
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Honor God With Your Vote
Scripture calls us to honor and pray for those in authority (1 Peter 2:17; Romans 13:7; 1 Tim 2:1-2). And in America, we have the extraordinary privilege and responsibility of helping choose those who govern us.
We honor God not only by how we vote, but by taking the responsibility to vote seriously.
No candidate is perfect. But we can examine their platforms, policies, values, and the results their leadership has produced or is likely to produce, weighing them against biblical principles and values.
Our vote is an opportunity to put our convictions into action. Don't let that opportunity pass you by. Vote!
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