Have you ever heard parents telling their children, \u201cChildren, the money you earn, use it on yourself. You don\u2019t have to give us money, because we already have enough. Anyway your salary is low, expenses are high, you have loans to repay, living expenses to bear, children to raise…\u201d<\/p>\n
Dear readers, can we say this kind of words to our children? Do these words follow the teachings of the Bible?<\/p>\n
In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 7, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and teachers of law:
\n\u201c10 For Moses said, \u2018Honour your father and mother,\u2019 and, \u2018Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.\u2019 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) \u2014 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.\u201d (Mark 7)<\/p>\n
Jesus teaches us to honour our parents, to provide for them. We cannot say to our parents, \u201cThe money I would have given you is already given to God, I don\u2019t have any more to give you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Children giving money to parents is right and proper. It is a concrete expression of honouring parents.<\/p>\n
Once, I visited an old woman who complained, \u201cMy son doesn\u2019t honour me!\u201d So I asked her, \u201cAh mu, how does your son not honour you?\u201d She expressed clearly, \u201cHe doesn\u2019t give a single cent to me! He doesn\u2019t honour me!\u201d<\/p>\n
Another old lady said, \u201cMy daughter honours me a lot!\u201d I asked, \u201cThat\u2019s great, what does she do?\u201d \u201cShe gives me 300 ringgit every month!\u201d The old lady replied proudly.<\/p>\n
You see, giving money is a concrete expression of honouring parents. But giving money does not necessarily mean honouring parents, if it is given reluctantly or without thanksgiving. What about not giving money? Not giving money is not honouring parents. What about giving money? We need to give cheerfully, give thankfully. This is the expression of honouring parents.<\/p>\n
The God who owns the universe lacks nothing. He says:
\n10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. (Psalms 50)<\/p>\n
But God did not tell us that we do not have to give him anything. Instead, he says to the Israelites: \u201cBring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this … and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.\u201d (Malachi 3:10)<\/p>\n
God also says to you and me, \u201cEach of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.\u201d (2 Cor 9:7) We need to give money to God, and to give cheerfully.<\/p>\n
Parents, we do not need to be greater than God. So do not say to your children, \u201cWe have money, don\u2019t give us any more.\u201d Let your children learn to honour you.<\/p>\n
Children, if your parents tell you, \u201cWe have money, you don\u2019t have to give us any more.\u201d What should be your response? You should still give them money regularly, to express your love for them and to honour them in a practical way.<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard parents telling their children, \u201cChildren, the money you earn, use it on yourself. You don\u2019t have to give us money, because we already have enough. Anyway your salary is low, expenses are high, you have loans to repay, living expenses to bear, children to raise…\u201d Dear readers, can we say this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,192,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}