Proverbs 19:26

The book of Proverbs addresses the practical dimensions of daily life, and this verse speaks directly to family and honor. In the ancient Near Eastern culture in which these sayings were written, caring for one's parents was a foundational moral obligation — not optional, but essential to what it meant to be a person of integrity. To rob a father was to strip him of his resources and dignity; to drive out a mother was to leave her homeless and unprotected in a world where women had little independent security. The proverb doesn't soften the verdict: this kind of behavior produces shame and disgrace — not only for the family, but most of all for the one who did it.

Lord, forgive me for the ways I have taken for granted the people who gave so much to raise me. Soften whatever pride or distance keeps me from honoring them well. Help me not to wait until it's too late to say or do what actually needs to be said and done. Amen.

There is a particular kind of grief that parents carry quietly — the kind born of a child who has become a stranger, or worse, someone who takes without giving back. This verse names the behavior plainly and doesn't flinch at the result: shame and disgrace. But before you file this away as someone else's problem, sit with it a moment. The proverb isn't only about dramatic theft or literal eviction. It's about what happens when a son or daughter stops seeing their parents as human beings worthy of honor and starts treating them as obstacles, inconveniences, or simply sources to draw from. Most of us won't rob our parents in any literal sense. But this verse pokes at something subtler and more common: the slow erosion of gratitude, the taking for granted, the long stretches of silence, the eye rolls, the ways we reduce our parents to their worst moments and forget the rest. Honor is not a feeling — it's an action, and it costs something. If your parents are still living, you likely have unfinished business: an unreturned call, an unspoken thank-you, an apology you've been mentally composing for years. This is your nudge.