It Is All A Question Of Respect

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.