Suzuki !

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Shimpei Suzuki
Mr. Cosmin Ritivoiu
College English 2: Argumentative Essay 1
4 February 2015
The Fifth Commandment and Courtship
Choose one of the Ten Commandments and demonstrate its application to Christian courtship.
(Article 1 from Christian Marriage and Family)
People nod their heads when they hear the fifth commandment, Honor your father and
your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
Many people would agree that it is crucial to respect parents in order to have a successful and
meaningful life. However, people most likely forget this commandment after they hear and agree
with what it says. Theoretically, it sounds like the right thing to do, yet it is not easy to carry it
out in reality. This essay will present how deep the fifth commandment is and how it is applied to
Christian courtship. Love for parents is the significant foundation upon which people build their
love for their spouses, parents of their spouses, and their future children.
People are highly likely to treat their spouses in the same way they behave in front of
their own parents. If men love their mothers, they can love their wives as much. The love and
kindness of men to their own mothers are transferred to their wives when they marry. When they
show selfishness and disrespect toward their mothers, these traits degenerate men and hinder
them from being mature. With selfless love toward their mothers can men really love their wives.
Men love their wives in the same way they treat their mothers. Likewise, women are to honor
their fathers because their attitudes toward their fathers are likely to reflect when they are with

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their husbands. Womens obedience and respect to their fathers directly influence how they listen
to their husbands. Their desires do not exceed their fathers will; likewise, they are not to have
authority over their husbands as they marry. Through their respect and honor to their fathers,
women learn to submit themselves to their husbands. Nowadays, many women do not respect
their fathers although the fathers love them. It is self-centered that women let their will and
desires be fulfilled over what their father want them to do. Submission to their fathers shows
how truly women can respect their own husband. In sum, people most likely treat their spouses
and parents in the same way.
With love and respect for their parents, people can also honor their spouses parents.
Since husband and wife become one flesh as they marry, parents of spouse will be ones parents
as well. As a man should respect and obey his parents, he should also do likewise to her parents.
Without loving his own parents, he could never honor his spouses parents. If his wifes parents
want him to pay special attention to her personality and how she was grown, he has to listen to
their words and follow them. This may be similar to when he is told by his own parents to be
kind to his siblings. Child is taught to live peacefully with his siblings when they play. Likewise,
if his other parents tell him to take care of their child who is his wife, he should submit himself
to their guidance. In the same way, a woman should listen to her husbands parents. Only by
loving their own parents can people maintains good relationship with their spouses parents.
Parents love for their own parents can be good example for children in order for them to
obey the parents. Parents keep telling their children to obey their words, but they often forget to
respect their own parents. If children see their parents not loving their grandparents, they will
wonder why they need to obey what their parents say. Parents must first love their parents and

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display their love in front of their children. It is hypocrites that parents force their children to
obey themselves without obeying their own parents. Parents love and obedience to their own
parents help their children to listen to themselves.
In the end, honoring parents is the basis of love that is applied to when people deal with
others. Whether a man loves and cherishes his wife depends upon how much he has selfless love
for his mother and expresses it through his deeds and words. Womans obedience and respect to
her father is pre-requisite for submitting herself to her husband. Knowing how to care parents is
needed to respect spouses parents. Before parents require their children to obey themselves, they
first have to make sure they have love for their parents and display it. Many courtships will be
successful if people love their parents.