Ten Commandments

Many people take their parents for granted. Some adults even form the bad habit of arguing with their parents over trifles and a few even turn aggressive and hostile towards their parents especially when the latter become older. One might then ask: why there are people who are so loving and kind to their parents just like their sweet hearts, whereas others are treating their parents just like enemies, with the vast majority of people treating their parents between the two extremes? Is being kind to our parents something that can be formed into a good habit?

In the Ten Commandments, God wants us to be kind to our parents. It is possible for us to form a habit of being kind to our parents by keep recalling all their prior caring, dedication, and love to bring us up till we become independent. To be kind to people, typically our parents, is actually being good to ourselves! For this reason, God thus reveals the secret of happiness to us via His commandments – be always good to ourselves by being always kind to our parents because we always meet them! To achieve this aim, we need to learn how to forgive.

Some people do not love their parents as much as they do to their sweet heart or spouse; this is mainly because they did not forgive their parents those stern lessons they received from them in their early days; this thus makes them unfriendly towards their parents especially when they grow up and become independent financially. They are holding grudges against their parents. But we must not forget that most of their disciplinary actions are meant for our growth; without them we might not have become whom we are now today – a fully grown-up being. Thus, we need to forget and forgive their wrong doings of any size and any kind, if any, as well as to be grateful to them for taking care of us from a helpless infant till becoming adult.

To forgive people is actually to forgive ourselves. Sometimes, when we make mistakes we may be hard on ourselves. So, being able to always forgive our parents means that we are able to always forgive our mistakes and thus stopping being hard on ourselves. In a nutshell, since we are all born sinful and none is born righteous, we should be kind to our parents and forgive them all their wrong doings, just like God is being kind to us and forgives us all our mistakes and sins.