Buechner: Parents
“‘Honor your Father and your mother,’ says the Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12). Honor them for having taken care of you before you were old enough to take care of yourself.”—Frederick Buechner.
Buechner reminds us of the Fifth Commandment: to honor our parents. He explains that we are to honor them because they loved us and cared for us.
Mother and Child, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church North Little Rock
Last week, I sat with a group of friends, and we all spontaneously started talking about scars we received from our parents, particularly our mothers. Some were abused or neglected by their parents. Some did not receive the love they had hoped for from their parents. Some had parents who never grew up to be the adults to become mentors that children need for protection. Buechner reminds us that our parents also had scars. They were doing the best they could with what they knew. But, Buechner also reminds us that we should always be grateful to them for giving us the gift of life.
We then wondered what our children would say about us—thinking of the scars we may have given them because of our own imperfections. So our prayers become that we can still make living amends for the harm we have done; and that we can reverse some of the behavior we have inherited, while also honoring the richness of our heritage.
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com https://www.joannaseibert.com/