Proverbs 1:8-9
These are my parents when they were in high school. They wouldn't meet for another dozen or so years. By then they were already married to other people and had children. Because of circumstances neither my father's or my mother's children lived with me or my younger brother (except for one half-brother for a couple years). This bothered me a great deal as a child. I think partly because I worried they'd leave me, too, for someone else. Needless to say, I did not have a lot of respect for my parents because of all the mistakes they made in their lives and the effect it had on our family....but I did honor them because God showed me that I could learn from their mistakes by not repeating them. After I left home at age 18 I kept in close contact with them and eventually took care of my mother in my home the last year of her life. God gave me the privilege of being with her when she took her last breath--just after I told her that Jesus was waiting for her.
