Read Colossians 3:18—4:1

Today’s Scripture:  Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20

John H. Starkey was a violent British criminal. He murdered his own wife,

then was convicted for the crime and executed. The officials asked General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, to conduct Starkey’s funeral. Booth faced as ugly and mean a crowd as he had ever seen in his life, but his first words stopped them and held their attention: “John H. Starkey never had a praying mother!”

Children have rights, but they also have responsibilities; and their

foremost responsibility is to obey. They are to obey “in everything” and not simply in those things that please themselves. Will their parents ever ask them to do something that is wrong? Not if the parents are submitted to the Lord and to each other.

Children who do not learn to obey their parents are not likely to grow up

obeying any authority. They will defy their teachers, the police, their

employers, and anyone else who tries to exercise authority over them.

The breakdown in authority in our society reflects the breakdown of authority in the home.

Something to Ponder

How is children’s obedience to parents significant in regard to their

eventual obedience to God?