Honor

Honor is an interesting word. What does it mean to honor someone? To honor God? To honor your parents? your boss? your spouse? Every relationship we have probably contains some level of honor. Often times they contain very little honor. It is a difficult thing to honor someone who has hurt us or who has betrayed our trust. As I sit and think about honor and what that truly means, I go back to my childhood. I learned at an early age the verse, "Honor your father and mother." I don't know that I understood what all that entailed as a child, I just knew it was one of the 10 Commandments and the little Bible Bee-er in me had that one memorized! Now that I'm an adult, I've come to realize that my ability to honor others is greatly affected by how much I am honoring God.

There are lots of ways to honor God. Some simple, some hard, but He is worthy. It's not up to me to decide whether or not I'm going to honor Him, it's just my job to do it! We honor Him through our words, our actions, and our thoughts. The way we live our lives can bring so much honor to Him. I am realizing more and more that one of the greatest ways I honor God is by being a faithful steward with what He's given me to do. What do you have in your hand? What are you doing with it? God has given us each unique talents and gifts. He made us a certain way on purpose. My husband put it so well the other night. He said, "isn't it interesting that the thing God put in you to do and gave you a gifting and a passion for is often times the thing that can bring so much frustration in your life?" The frustration comes when we are not doing what He's given us to do! When we let that thing just stay cooped up inside of us, and we don't let it out, it's easy to get frustrated! Life is busy. It is for everyone. But we have a choice of what we're going to do with our lives. We can choose to let the days, weeks, and months go by and before we know it, we can look up and realize we've been sitting on our gift. Or we can choose to carve out time. Drop the things that are keeping us busy that have no kingdom value. Get rid of the life-suckers and the time-wasters and just get on with it! Honor God with the gift that He first gave to you. Don't bury that thing in the ground. When He comes back He doesn't want to wait while you go dig up that old thing. Limp and lifeless, suffocating in the ground with no water, no food, no time or energy invested in it. He wants to see the fruit that your gift has produced. He wants to see your growing, sprouting gift from a mile off! Just bursting with fruit and life. Are you honoring God today? Look in your hand. Search deep inside your heart. What has He given you to do? What has He asked you to do? Make something great out of whatever God has given you. Honor brings favor, so don't be surprised when your gift begins to increase the more you do with it. Opportunities and increase are waiting on the other side of your obedience and honor to Him!