Honor And Respect Your Children

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —

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There's a saying that's rolled down a very long track,

"Now honor thy parents!" or you might get a whack.

It is carved on the wall, it’s deemed as divine,

It was handed to you like an heirloom design.

But have you once paused in the thick of that din

To ask what it teaches, what it says is a sin?

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So honor your children! Respect what they say!

The gift that you give is a gift on its way.

For a child who feels respected has learned how to see,

The way to show honor to others and thee.

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Now honoring parents is decent and fine,

It’s nothing to quarrel with, it’s nothing malign.

But ask what it teaches from those parents above:

Does it teach kids to think, does it teach kids real love?

Does it teach them to listen, to pause and to weigh,

What others have done and what others will say?

That old saying flows up, and it only flows up,

It is water poured backwards, it won’t fill your cup.

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Your child is a watcher, awake and alert,

Who is reading your voice, your hands, what’s covert.

You can lecture on manners till Thursday at three,

But the child learns the things that the child gets to see.

So if you want honor to come back through your door,

Then honoring children is what must come before.

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So honor your children! Respect what they say!

The gift that you give is a gift on its way.

For a child who feels respected has learned how to see,

The way to show honor to others and thee.

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And what does that look like? Just knock on their door.

Just ask, and then wait, and then wait a bit more.

Just keep the agreements you made in the spring.

Just say you were wrong when you got the wrong thing.

Just hear each whole sentence, the halting, the slow,

And weigh what they say before your own thoughts flow.

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Then watch what comes back in a year or in ten:

Those small ones you honored will honor you then.

Not because it was ordered, not carved on some wall,

But because they were honored back when they were small.

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So let's start a new saying, let's carve a new line,

Let's stitch it in cloth and hang out a new sign.

Ditch "honor thy parents," so stale and so cold,

For something far wiser, worth buckets of gold:

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So honor your children! Respect what they say!

The gift that you give is a gift on its way.

For a child who feels respected has learned how to see,

The way to show honor to others and thee.