Friday, April 19, 2013

"FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY - Honor


Welcome to "Fan the Flame" Friday.

This is a weekly post that will be "short and sweet" (kinda like me...)

Just a word and a phrase, a sentence or a question...just a little something to "fan the flame" of your creativity!


Today's word: honor

What does it mean to honor someone?

If your parents are alive, in what ways can you honor them?  (If not, how would you honor the elderly you know in your life?)

What else does Scripture say about whom we should honor?

What does it mean - in practical, action-oriented ways - to honor God?


Let me know what you think!!


"...I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me." (1 Samuel 2:30, NLT)


"This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you…For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:6-7)


BLOG = "Blessedly Leaning On God!"

7 comments:

  1. Our parents gave us life, as they grow older, we should try to give their life honor, by honoring them.

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  2. I know I honored my parents Sharon and they didn't really honor me - but the kids of today - not sure they have that honor system in them...sandie

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  3. I admit it. I came here earlier and decided to come back and cheat off someone else's paper.

    Wait. We're not on the honor system, are we? Because I was just going to peek at what Sandie said.

    In all seriousness, I thought this was a hard one. The concept of honor is something that is hard to define for me. I even did a little word study with the Hebrew to try to make a better answer, but it is a "heavy" concept. (As in... it literally means to give weight or heaviness to. That got me thinking, but nothing profound came out.)

    I know that I am to honor my parents, and I know I am to honor God. I believe that to honor him with my actions is to make what I do a credit to His Name, since I claim to wear it.

    That's the best I can do. Give us an easy one next week, OK?

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  4. Blessings Sharon,

    You my dearest Sharon are HONORING your parents!!!

    My parents are not on this side of heaven, no longer with me physically, but I must admit (shame on me) that I did not honor them, I rebelled. I disagreed with my parents in so much ... right or wrong. And because I will try to honor them a bit, I will refrain from saying that they were racist, etc. and if I am honest, I did not show respect to them based on this and though they gave me a normal middle class life, my dad was a workaholic after giving up being an alcoholic (and praise God, I did not ever know him as an alcoholic but my older siblings did and they have no early memories of their childhood, whereas I do). My mom (as saintly as I'd liked to remember her for all her goodness as a homemaker, she suffered from many illnesses, but was a smoker and what I would call a social drinker). Most people would not speak negatively of my parents as I have, but if they were honest with the real facts, they would have to see them as they were. I mean no disrespect nor do I dishonor my parents (which many may think, well you have in what you wrote) all I can say is I love my parents inspite of this and they did the BEST they could with their lives and family. My father was a great provider and a giver! My mother was the best in hospitality, cooking, sewing, crafts despite many chronic illnesses, she is my mom. I honor the memory of my mom and dad better than I did show them honor in life. (ouch) Forgive me God, mom and dad! (I did ask forgiveness from my dad for my rebellion.)

    Now with that said I would like to define HONOR (since I shared as a good example how I did not): I've heard it said honor is earned. Honor is respect. Honor is the way that you treat someone with admiration or respect.

    I have great admiration for my dad as a WWII POW and his many stories he shared however his past life including his service, hardened him in many ways. He ruled with authority in our home. He received special recognition, and I do honor him for this.

    I choose to honor God. I hope that my lack of honor for my earthly parents is not reflected in my relationship with God. In fact, I pray it is the exact opposite. I bow to Father, son and Holy Spirit, surrendering and submitting all honor due them with a holy awe.

    27 verses on honor
    http://www.thecityofrefuge.org/pdfs/honor.pdf

    Forgive me, for not showing honor, which is a biblical principle. I did celebrate honoring my parents on the special days like birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's and Father's Day but not my daily encounters at home.

    "According to the thesaurus, honor has these synonyms: "esteem, respect, pay homage to, assigning value to." The Greek word translated "honor" in our English Bibles, timao, means "to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication, to revere" (Strong's Concordance). Showing honor, then, means treating another respectfully because we value them highly.

    So is honor due anyone? Should we put value on any man or woman, or should we honor God alone? What does the Bible say? A study with a concordance reveals just how much God has to say about honoring others. He does not limit it to honoring our parents."


    We should honor God, our spouses, our parents, others, those in authority, and even our selves. Scripture tells us to honor widows, spiritual elders, ministers, etc.
    I definitely feel we should honor the elderly! And our society seems to be going in the exact opposite direction.
    Tough as it may be, we should make it our aim to honor everyone—all the time.

    Love to you and your beautiful mom and wonderful dad who you honor in who you are and all you do,
    (((hugs))) Peggy

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    Replies
    1. Happy Anniversary to my mom and dad! (in 3 days)

      I do honor the years that they were married and the love my dad showed my mom, moreso after she passed away... in his longing to be with her, his care of her in her final years. I fondly remember that my dad never left to go to work without kissing my mom and the red roses he gave her while living and after at her grave site

      I should have linked the pdf on HONOR above after the verses (but I thought I had forgotten how)
      pdf

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  5. I honored my husband's mother by caring for her through colon cancer. It was MY honor. To my parents I honor them with some "externals" they raised me with. They are not requirements God has given me, but are important to them.

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  6. What does it mean to honor someone?

    As Debbie pointed out, the original Hebrew word literally means "to make heavy.'' I'm thinking of the word honor in the specific case of parents. Our pastor recently did a wonderful sermon on the commandment to honor your mother and father. He pointed out that honor does not necessarily mean respect or affection. He urged us to give our parents *weight* in our lives. And, we should honor the position, not necessarily the person. Like we might not like a certain president (or other person in authority), but we give honor to the position.

    If your parents are alive, in what ways can you honor them? (If not, how would you honor the elderly you know in your life?)

    I am learning this in new ways as my aging parents require more help. I think one of the biggest ways I can honor my parents is by treating them with dignity. As they become increasingly more feeble and child-like, it is sometimes hard to remember that they still possess dignity as people, and they deserve for me to treat them that way. I happen to love my parents very much, and so I feel that honoring them also includes giving them respect. And, I *give weight* to them by spending time with them, listening to them, helping them live their lives, and to treat them with patience and kindness.

    What else does Scripture say about whom we should honor?

    We are also called to honor our husbands (or wives), governing authorities, elders, your neighbor - and of course, God.

    What does it mean - in practical, action-oriented ways - to honor God?

    I found this on a site, and I think it sums up what I think:

    "We honor God when we make it our chief ambition in life to please Him, to love Him and to serve Him at all times."

    Trusting Him, serving Him, loving Him, giving our offerings to Him.

    It means respecting Him as almighty, and having a healthy reverence and fear for Him. It means we *give weight* to Him in our lives.

    GOD BLESS!

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"So [I] have been greatly encouraged in the midst of [my] troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith. It gives [me] new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord. How [I] thank God for you!" (1 Thessalonians 3:7-9)

Thanks for your comments - it is such a joy to be sharing my journey with friends like YOU!

(NOTE: Anonymous comments will be removed. Thank you for understanding.)