Respect & Honor

These are two very powerful words when dealing with others. There are lots of people that I don’t respect nor do I want to show them honor. There are politicians that I don’t agree with, but I respect them as people and I respect the position they hold. I do not necessarily feel the need to honor someone that I don’t like or respect. When I honor someone, I feel like I’m in agreement with who they are and what they do. I feel like I might be “splitting hairs” by differentiating between these two terms, but honor means so much more than respect. To me respect is a passive and honor is active.   The Lord wants both from me. Check this out…

9 ‘Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?’– says the Lord Almighty.

10 ‘Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,’ says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 1:9-11 NIV)

I think in our culture we treat celebrities better than others who we really should honor. Don’t get me wrong, I like certain artists as well as actors, but I don’t believe that they should be on a pedestal higher than school teachers, service men and women, firefighters, the police, ect… The later deserves respect and honor, but we’re often eager to give that to the famous or wealthy and sometimes they’ve done nothing to deserve either.

The Lord deserves my highest level of respect and honor. My behavior doesn’t always reflect that, but He always deserves it. I want to live my life in such a way that I make Him famous. I also want to live a life worthy of respect and honor, but not at the expense of someone else. Any honor or respect that I receive, really belongs to the Lord – He has made me who I am. He wired me to worship Him. He draws my back when I stumble and stray. He gives me wisdom beyond words. I am very thankful He calls me His kid, but I often don’t deserve that respect and honor from Him.

Pressing On!

Dwayne