You know you are singing Aretha Franklin's R-E-S-P-E-C-T now, aren't you? She meant business in that song! Have you ever read the lyrics? I just did and first off I was totally wrong on a few lyrics. This is no longer a shock to me as I have absolutely annihilated many a song in my day. One line that was funny to me was the one that goes like this: "Your kiss is sweeter than honey.
Guess what? So is my money". You tell em girl! You can tell that she was disrespected and unfortunately for her Boo she was a famous singer and put this guy on blast! When I am disrespected sometimes I wish I had a bullhorn. I would make everyone aware of the disrespect that occurred. But I am assuming that is not the way I should react.
I took a little look in my ever so handy B-I-B-L-E. There are actually quite a few scriptures that talk about respect. Respect towards your parents is one and respect towards the elderly is another. I really wanted to find a verse that spoke about a more general respect. I believe this is something that is lacking in our culture. More on that later, but for now this is the verse that I really enjoyed:
"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free man, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone:Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king".
1 Peter 2:13-17
The word submit ruffles many feathers. We live in a world that has very little respect for authority. You see that with our President, past and present. You see that with children and their parents. You see the lack of respect for Police Officers. And you even see it among believers. Not just towards non-believers, but even among their fellow brother and sisters in Christ. I love Matthew Henry's commentary on 1 Peter. I have to say many times I get even more confused as to what a certain verse means after I read his commentary, but this one I got!
"As the traveller, the racer, the warrior, and the labourer, gathered in
their long and loose garments, that they might be ready in their
business, so let Christians do by their minds and affections. Be sober,
be watchful against all spiritual dangers and enemies, and be temperate
in all behaviour. Be sober-minded in opinion, as well as in practice,
and humble in your judgment of yourselves. A strong and perfect trust in
the grace of God, is agreeable with best endeavours in our duty.
Holiness is the desire and duty of every Christian. It must be in all
affairs, in every condition, and towards all people. We must especially
watch and pray against the sins to which we are inclined. The written
word of God is the surest rule of a Christian's life, and by this rule
we are commanded to be holy every way. God makes those holy whom he
saves".
This was actually the commentary for the verse that preceded 1 Peter 2:13-17. I wanted to dive in a little deeper than finding one verse with the word respect in it. I wanted to know how to show respect to everyone. "Holiness is the desire and duty of every Christian. It must be in all affairs, in every condition, and towards all people". Man, that is a tough one to swallow. I kind of want to stomp my feet like a little girl and say, "I don't wanna". I don't want to show respect to our current President. I don't want to show respect to my husband when he is not showing it to me. I don't want to show respect to that lady who cut me off or that guy who didn't open the door for me. Respect is about humility. There is nothing more refreshing than someone who is humble. Forgiveness is also a big factor in respect. My Mother in Law always says " Maybe they were just having a bad day". We make fun of her but it is a great attitude to have towards those who wronged you. This is not to say we need to let people walk all over us., but we need to show mercy and not be so quick to anger.
I write mainly about things that I am convicted about. Respect is something that is very hard for me. When you have a kid there are little ears listening at all times! You become very aware of the nasty words that come out of your mouth or if you have a little more control you are aware of them before they fall out. I was driving the other day and someone was driving super slow. I was saying something like: "Hurry up dude! Are you kidding me"? Pull over"!!!! Then honked at him. Shane, who was in the backseat, says "Mama, maybe that is as fast as their car goes". Oh my! Talk about feeling like a big meanie head. Although, I know this guy could have gone faster, I also know that I did not need to be quick to anger and that I just need to show him some grace.
I was in an accident when I was younger. It was my fault. I was driving my sister to school. I looked over for a second to see if I could park somewhere and bam, I hit the car in front of me. I was barely moving so it wasn't a huge accident, but being that it was my first accident I was so embarrassed and scared. I got out and the lady was so nice to me. She reassured me that it was just an accident and that it was ok. Nobody was hurt and that everything would be taken care of. She displayed so much respect. What could have been a moment for her to be super angry, turned into a moment of grace and mercy.
Now fast forward to a time I felt the most disrespect. I lived in Orange County. I could probably stop my story right there as many Orange Countiers(??) are not known for thinking about anyone but themselves. I was at Mervyns(oh how I miss that store). I was going into the dressing room. I had one of those small carts and my purse was stuffed on the very bottom. I walked through the doors and at the same time I am trying to grab my purse from the bottom. It is stuck and these doors had one of those bells that dings to alert some one to come help in the dressing room. It probably dinged ten times. I was so concentrated on getting my purse out that I wasn't aware of anyone near by. A fellow customer looked at me with the most annoyed look. She didn't have to say a word. If looks could kill! I said sorry and quickly moved away from the sensor. I still got a eye roll and a head shake. To this day I still get so upset about it. I thought about pretending I was deaf to make her feel really bad.....but....remember that part Matthew Henry writes about: "We must especially watch and pray against the sins to which we are inclined". Yeah, that part. In order to get respect, you need to give it. I may have not received any respect from that annoyed lady but my inclination towards shaming her was not the correct response. I have been shown respect though many times over. It is so refreshing. Try it. It usually throws people off who are usually prepared for disrespect.
There is so much more I can talk about on respect. I plan on breaking this up into a marriage post, a parenting post and a respecting yourself post. Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions on upcoming posts let me know. I haven't done a whole lot of cooking/baking posts. With Fall here I am hoping to have more posts on my favorite recipes. So, what you want? You know I got it. Oh man, that was all kinds of cheesy:).
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