5th Commandment

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” (Exodus 20:12 NASB)
“3And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.' "But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God," he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.’BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'" (Matthew 15: 3-9 NASB)
Today I resume our float trip down the Rio de 10 Commandments with a subject I, more so than ever, am hardly qualified to write about...the Fifth Commandment is to honor your Father and your Mother. I also want to springboard onto a rabbit trail that relates to this subject and how it relates to tradition. Join as the blind leads the blind on this one.
I am the baby of my family in more ways than one. The youngest of three kids, I became adept at whining my way into and out of trouble. My older sister, the firstborn of the Applegate brood, was a typical co-parent type growing up. I looked up to (and still do) her maturity and strength. She was the trailblazer of the Applegate kids... first to drive, get a job, and the like. She also moderated trouble among the ranks of the siblings. Next came my brother. He is a genius, yet with the “turtle-running-across-interstate” risk-taking gene. He is extroverted and winsome in personality and, in many ways, my idol. In his teen years, unable to be challenged by teachers and parents intellectually, creatively found himself in trouble often. Then came yours truly... I was the baby. I am the baby. I even married the baby of another family. My sister would usually relent rather than hearing me whine to get my way. My brother would, rightfully, whack me to shut me up, thereby getting himself in trouble. I was in a nice triangular insulation from parenting because of this arrangement. I was successful in the “kid game” if I could get in trouble less than my brother. Piece of cake.
I suspect we drove my parents crazy (and were on the short list of reasons why their marriage failed). When they would try to go on a date, we would terrorize our “babysitter of the week”. I remember vividly (as does she) when we played a game with one of them. Never play the Houdini game with an Applegate kid! A simple game... tie me in a chair and see if I can escape. The first round is easy. The second round we tied her up and left...for the afternoon. Three hours and six bucks worth of Pac Man quarters later, we freed the poor babysitter (Is that a felony Mr. Starbuck? I hope I have passed the statute of limitations!). We had a different babysitter the next week. The Fifth Commandment never entered our mind. God gave us parents, assigned them to raising us, and we would do this kind of stuff to reward them! It was, and is, so easy to sin.
This is the pin point tip of the iceberg of my breaching the 5th Commandment. But enough about me... How about you? Did you always obey the first time asked as a child? Did you bring honor to your family name through your school work, your service to mankind, and your good character...all the time? Have you ever called your parents a name to or behind their back? What was your attitude toward obeying? God’s standard is perfection, not an easy competition of behaving better than yours truly. Obeying externally and rebelling inside is not honoring your parents. I think we are both zero for the first five Commandments! Yet, despite breaking this and the other Commandments a plethora of times, God made a way for us to be forgiven. Stacks of my and your sins forgiven by an amazing God dying on a cross as a substitute penalty for the crimes we committed. All we have to do is repent (turn from them never to return) of the sins in our life, let Him be our absolute boss (Lord), and know that He is the only way to go to heaven. If you need more info about this process, email me. I am happy to help!
As for the before-mentioned rabbit trail, I direct you to the Matthew 15 verse above. There was a tradition in the day of Christ that Pharisees would dedicate things to God so they wouldn’t have to show it as an asset. It was, in a way, like a loophole in the right thing to do scale. Jesus, as he was wont to do, exposed this, and others like it. Their stuff was no more “given to God” than that “business lunch” write-off at Hammons Park was for business purposes. God cares about reality, not perception. Honoring God with our mouth while denying in our heart is as useless a screen door in a submarine (so says the song). I am trying to reign in my motives these days. I put on a decent show on the outside, but have found sin hiding in the motives. Join me in rooting this one out.

Bible verse... Proverbs 10:1. I know a story of a man who became a Christian in jail after a journey that largely began with the reading this verse.
Diet update...I have lost 97.4 pounds now, after another really good month. I weigh 239.6, about 50 pounds from my goal. I appreciate your prayers!