04.02.16 The 12th Key for Adding Value to Your Parents' Lives

12. Mind Who you Associate With

I do remember the day we attended a fellowship where, much to my alarm, one sister rubbished her mother’s behaviour openly as she (sister) was giving a testimony. After the meeting, I took her aside and expressed my concerns about such an unbefitting exposure of her mother’s weak points but she seemed adamant. Thereafter, I must confess that our budding relationship did not get as close as she had initially intended.

In the same vein, I would like to infer that Ruth did not have close associations with Moabites as their pagan worship could have undoubtedly marred her relationship with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Moreover, she had disowned her tribe as reported in Ruth 1:16-17.

A value-adding daughter minds who she associates with, especially if the associate ‘minimises’ the value of parents.

Proverbs 30:11 warns that (AMP): There is a generation (class of people) that curses its father and does not bless its mother. Therefore, it is important to check out the people that you closely associate with. Much as it is that you may have been brought up to value your parents, a friend that does not honour his or her parents could infect you with those manners as ‘birds of the same feathers flock together’. My sister, I do not necessarily mean that you should disassociate yourself from friends who have poor relationships with their parents but be careful since bad manners can corrupt good habits (1 Corinthians 15:33).