The men gathered in the upstairs church room to share, but it was hard for them to talk about broken hearted-ness. Many people can’t relate or chose not to relate because of denial. We like to live in denial as human beings because we would rather believe that we were loved and cherished and counted important to others in our life than to admit that actually we were not. When we deny that we were neglected, abused or not valued as we should have been we never get the opportunity for God the Father to heal us. God can’t heal you because he only moves in truth and needs in our life.

Sometimes we defend those in authority in our life out of duty or false honour. and when we become a Christian our dilemma increases because we now want to honour our father but sometimes what he did, is impossible to respect.

We need to realize that every person is a sinner; they have both good and bad. And so we have a Good dad/ Bad dad. Solomon was a good dad- bad dad. Noah was a good and a bad dad. Maybe your Pastor who served faithfully for 15 years then fell was again good and bad. If you have been hurt by an uncle or those meant to protect us, they were a good person and a bad person. We must admit both. To honour your father and mother means to give recognition to. In Hebrew, it means to give weight to. We need to give weight to the good of your parents and thank God for them. We also need to give due weight to the bad. Let it be heavy, for it may have been really bad. It may have been truly evil and it was not your fault. (Often when people don’t see it as wrong they repeat the same wrong.) Then allow compassion and forgiveness to flow into your hearts.

Friend, we do not honour their sin or abuse and we don’t respect that. But we will forgive them, so we can go free ourselves. We also remember that he also is loved by God and maybe still captive to and a victim of the devil.