Hello again!
It has been awhile but I have finally
got a new blog post for all you people. This one is based on a conversation mom
and I had a while back about respect. The basic premise is that in the world
today there are a lot of issues. Everyone has heard about the unrest in Egypt
and the Middle East, the homeless and poor in every country, the ongoing debate
on animal rights and food. And there are a lot of suggested causes; injustice,
money, economy, laziness, abuse, the list is endless. But I think a lot of our
issues stem from one simple thing, lack of respect.
Let’s start with the horse meat scandal in the
UK, if you don’t completely understand the issue you may be inclined to say
something like what I said when I first heard about it; “So what? Horse meat is
a food too.” Or maybe your reaction is more like; “Oh my gosh! The poor
horses!!!” But the type of meat has nothing to do with the problem. The problem
is that the marketers called it beef when it wasn't beef. That’s fraud. And if
they didn't have enough respect for the industry to actually call the horse
meat horse meat, why would they bother to use meat from horses that have been
raised well and not shot full of steroids? Especially when the lame, broken
down, drugged up horses are cheaper than the healthy ones.
And speaking of broken down horses, animal abuse
is another problem stemming from lack of respect. There is a verse in proverbs
that says “The righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender
mercies of the wicked are cruel.” The righteous man will honor his animal by
treating it well even if the end result is going to be meat for supper. The
wicked man doesn't care what happens to his animal as long as he gets his meal
at the end of the process. The wicked man has no respect, he doesn't respect
his animals they don’t respect him. And there is no one I know of that will
respect someone who abuses their animals.
So what about person to person relationships?
Well, think about the last fight you had with a sibling or parent. Chances are
you felt disrespected. Maybe they weren't listening to your ideas, maybe you
felt like they were belittling you, or maybe they were ignoring your personal boundaries.
All of those are disrespectful, but maybe it was double sided, when your parent didn't listen to you, you started getting upset and disregarded what they had
to say, when your sibling waltzed into your room like they owned the place you
got up and shoved them out. What might have happened if you had respected them?
Maybe the sibling who came into your room needs to talk about their stressful
day, maybe the parent who wasn't listening to you felt like you were
disrespecting them by interrupting. Of course it is possible that they just weren't respecting you, but that is no excuse. If you want respect you are
going to have to give some respect away. If you want your sibling to stop
belittling you then stop immaturely disrespecting them, if you want your parent
to listen to you, then respect them by letting them finish their sentence, or
paragraph, or their whole speech before you jump in.
Now there are people out there who mistake fear
for respect, however, there is a vital difference. Fear is intimidation and feeling
powerless while respect is most similar to love. Fear drives people away but
respect draws them closer. Which of those really freaky villains that you've seen in a movie have made you think; “Man, I want to get up close to that guy!”
That just isn't something you say when you’re watching the Red Skull shoot
civilians and his soldiers in cold blood. On the other hand those people you
respect, Heroes, artists, or grandparents even, those are people you want to
know better and get closer to right? Those are the people who make you think, “Oh
my goodness! They are so cool! I want to know all about them!” You respect
them.
Of course respect is not really a particularly simple
subject, as with anything you can’t just lay down a line that says ‘this is
respectful’ and ‘this is disrespectful’ because it depends on the
circumstances. But if what you’re about to do is going to hurt someone or
damage something, just assume it is disrespectful and don’t do it.
So now, just because I feel like making the
point, I have a couple of questions for you to think on: What if Governments respected their people enough
to listen to them? What if people respected the government enough to actually
change it when it needs changing?
What if we all made respect the top value in
our lives, then in our families, and then in our communities, and then in our
countries?
Would it change the world?
I believe it would.
