Dad always taught me to show and give respect to my elders. In fact, he strongly encouraged this behavior (if you know what I mean) and I believe it's been of great benefit to me to follow his advice. As a father, my advice to my children has been: Respect yourself and as you do this, respect others, also.
I know of a young man–who I have much respect for–who lives this attitude of respect quite well. He is a good friend of my daughter, Tasha, and I am impressed by his sincere respect for my wife and me. What I appreciate the most about this young man is that he not only respects himself, but that he also has great respect for my daughter.
People have commented to me that they often don't get the respect they feel they deserve. I ask them two questions: Do you show respect for yourself? and Do you respect others the way you'd like to be respected?
You see, if you don't think much of yourself, nobody else will either. It's healthy for us to respect ourselves, but of course that means we must be respectable people! And when you show the kind of respect you like to get back, well, you know the old saying, What goes around comes around, or put another way, You reap what you sow .
There are lots of attitudes that show respect: kindness in the face of rudeness, patience even when in a hurry, empathy for someone who's having a rough day, acceptance of someone whose beliefs are different from your own, tolerance of another's mistake, self-control when you feel like losing your cool, gentleness when being criticized–I think you get the idea. As you launch into the new year, make it a habit to respect yourself and others and you'll have a Happy New YOU!
