Ever since I became a Christian at the ripe old age of 18 I’ve been trying to share the gospel with my parents. Not surprisingly, they weren’t receptive to my early methods, driven as they were by excessively youthful enthusiasm. My decision to give up all for gospel preaching in my late twenties only increased their hardness towards that message. Things have improved over the years, perhaps as they saw my maturing, and my steadfastness of faith, but it’s only now as I seek to care for them in their advancing years, that I may be winning a hearing.
It’s been a hard mission field. If a prophet is without honour in his home-town, how much more in his home? Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:22 certainly stacked the odds against us, it’s hard to be heard while being hated. But the Bible says that ‘hated and without honour’ is the lot for those who follow in Jesus’ steps. Yet still, the outcome of faithful living can be others’ salvation. The example of wives winning their unbelieving husbands to Christ in 1 Peter 3:1-2 certainly gives us hope.
Evangelism among family can be a long process, but the passage of time is also surprisingly swift. One moment you’re the youth of the family clashing spiritedly with your ‘misguided’ parents who are despairing over their ‘misguided’ teenager. The next moment, as the ageing process begins to overtake them, you find yourself with the maturity to see their needs and meet them. The Bible tells us to honour our parents. As children we do it by obeying them, as young adults by the good life choices we make, and in their old age it’s by caring for them. It is a privilege to do so. Read More
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