Today's Word
Proverbs 23:22
“Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.”
Reflection
The phrase "your father who gave you life" pulls a parent out of abstract authority and back into being the source of your own breath. To listen is not blind obedience; it is the plea not to shut your ears to the one through whom you came to be.
Then comes the line about not despising a mother when she is old. The verse knows how easily the heart wavers as parents grow weak and slow. When the hands that once carried you begin to tremble, it asks you not to withdraw your respect before that change.
Think today of one phone call to a parent, or to whoever raised you, with a listening ear rather than a lesson. Honoring them shows itself not in grand gestures but in small attention.
To keep one verse in your heart each day
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