December 14, 2020
Practical Wisdom – Ecclesiastes 7:1
According to what is spoken by people of all ages today, there is a belief and demand that they are to be respected. In my day respect was taught to children by teaching them to respect their elders [18 and over], we were to address them as Mr., Miss, or Mrs using their surname. We were to hold the door open for our elders, make sure that a seat was available to them even if it meant surrendering our own. We were not to sit around and engage in the conversations that adults were having with one another. We were to obey that which they were teaching us if what they were teaching us was for the betterment of our good and not the detriment. We were to never speak to our elders as though they were our equals, never speak to them disrespectfully, never rebuke them, never roll our eyes or neck at them, we could never even place our hands on our hips when we spoke with them.
Today, all of these things are things of the past and I am sure that I have left some things out that those who are in their late fifties and above may recall. Today, people demand respect from others regardless of the generation gap, economic class, skin tone, or being male or female. Everyone wants respect but respect begins with self. Respecting of oneself should be taught in the home along with the teaching of respecting others. Before I push forward, maybe I should make it clear as to what respect actually is.
Respect/regard of purpose; the connection or relationship, the esteem of worth; respecting people regardless of our agreeing or disagreeing with what their beliefs, habits, opinions, or teachings are, have regard; paying attention to consider.
Now, knowing the definition of what it means to respect one another we can see clearly that all biological males are to respect all biological females and vice versa. There really is no age differentiation because this simplistic rule should be taught along with everything else we are being taught while we are wee ones. Having the knowledge of respect as one of the foundations that we build on will cause us to be less likely argumentative, hot headed, disrespectful, impatient, unpeaceful and so on.
King Solomon taught and left behind for our learning that practical wisdom begins with respect. He likened it to perfume which was extremely costly because it is made from raw fruits, flowers, herbs, leaves, seeds, roots, and woods and they were never diluted. To respect one another is an aromatic scent that fills the air and is pleasing to the nostrils which most people enjoying being in the mist of or following behind someone one that we may see or not and proclaim, “wow, someone sure has on a lovely scent”.
Respect is earned and is most often associated by our name. We all should desire to have a name that when heard people will not say things that will cause others to be surprised due to our negative character and integrity but rather we should want our names to be filled with honor. A name that is associated with honor brings smiles to others and an openness to welcome the name bearer. Honor is the respectful behavior with and towards others, by how we speak with one another and to others, through our morality of courage; just because it appears to be fashionable among many does not mean that we have to follow what is the in thing of today. These often are changed by unsavory people and being led by them should not be where we desire to go. Learn to be a leader, learn to say and mean “No or Yes”, be the unique you, go against negative personal integrity and go with positive personal integrity, live to your own drummers beat and not the beat of others, live in Godly wisdom. Just following some of these suggestions will give to us favor from humankind.
AMFBeM (™)