Still with me? #5 Commandment or Suggestion?

I feel like I have lived several lifetimes in the span of my years. I was a single girl who took on the job of helping my parents build a church from the ground up. I was the organist, the choir director, a Sunday school teacher, monitored a brother and sister at home while our parents were visiting members. When it was needed I was the secretary that sent out the letters and did the church bulletins… well to tell the truth I took the job from my dad after a faux pas he made in a typo had us all laughing and still to this day the thought of it brings a smile. I did all of that because I was the first-born and I wanted to help my parents any way that I could and as my brother and sister got older they took on duties of their own. The one thing we all did from the beginning was sing as a trio, daddy referred to us as “the children” and I think he called us that until the day he died, where the three of us stood around his bed and yes we sang to him as his spirit departed earth for glory.

The later years of both of their lives I spent taking care of them, the last year my mother lived I couldn’t take her to church so I stayed home with her and we became television members of any church that sang the old time gospel songs, Jimmy Swaggart being her favorite.  My dad was so grateful for everything I did and when he told me he didn’t know how to show his gratitude I asked him if I had ever said thank you when I was an infant and he or mother changed my dirty diaper, or fed me when I couldn’t feed myself, or kept me warm and fed… he just smiled. I said, “Besides that daddy, this is really selfish, doesn’t the Bible say that if I take care of you I will receive a Prophets reward?”(I know, I know please don’t correct me I am paraphrasing) Anyway, that ended the discussion and he told me that I was their “angel”, ok, I accept that.

What is my point in reliving these memories with you now?

Commandment number five is the first one with a promise attached to it,

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

My dad lived to me ninety-five and my mother was ninety, maybe I will make it that long too!