On Thursday, my family will celebrate the life of my Paw Paw.
If you know anything about my relationship with him, you might know that sometimes it was a bit different. However, about a week and a half ago, the Lord really started working on my heart about the issue of honor.
Yes. Honor. You know, the kind talked about in Exodus 20:12 -- "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."
Now I know, Paw Paw wasn't my father, but the concept of honoring my (grand)father still applied.
And so last Monday, a week to the day of his passing, Ava and I went to see him at the nursing home.
I am a huge internal dialogue person; If you're not, wow, the silence must be nice. But that Monday, while I was at work and before our visit, the Lord kept pressing into my spirit how and what to say to honor my Paw Paw's life.
And as I listened to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, something began to happen with my heart. If you aren't familiar with the Ten Commandments, or even the one where you're told to honor your parents, I'll simply say that it's the first commandment that has a promise attached to it. With honor comes a long life. And today as I was reflecting on last week, and continuing to honor my Paw Paw in my thoughts, I couldn't help but wonder if we are commanded to show honor to our parents, as a way of softening our hearts to whatever hard feelings we may be experiencing at that time. Because a stoney heart doesn't produce life or fruit but a heart that's softened, now that's something the Lord can work with.
And I say all of that because that's what honoring my Paw Paw did to my heart; it softened my heart towards him in a new way and brought into focus the legacy he built and left behind. And I couldn't help but feel completely overwhelmed with thankfulness.
And I am truly thankful. And that's exactly what I shared with him the last time I saw him. I told him thank you for working so hard for our family. I told him thank you for raising my father to be such a good man. I told him that because of him, I had a great father. And I told him I was excited for him that he was getting ready to see Jesus face-to-face. I simply showed him honor.
When I began to look at my Paw Paw's life through the lens of honor, there was a shift in my spirit. A spirit of gratitude took over. I looked at the life of a man who had been faithful in his tithe and giving. A man who had impacted generations, because the Lord blessed his hard work. A man who touched nations through generosity. A man who would gift his children with possible seed for harvest. And I was completely overwhelmed because that in itself is an amazing legacy and one I want to leave for my family. A generous, kingdom-impacted, legacy.
And I just want to encourage you, if there's a relationship you have in your life that my be a little different, look for a way to honor that person in your thoughts and actions. Yield to honor and give it space to produce a long life full of gratitude and thankfulness.
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