We have a shortage of respect. The words “offended and offensive” are used more today than they were in decades past. We see it in our news, where almost every other story is about someone being offended by what someone else did or did not do.  We see it in our discourse. Social media is filled with critical statements made by critical people.  We obsess with being offended. It seems like you are simply no one unless you are offended by someone.

Respect can be confusing. Many books and articles focus on how to avoid offending others, whether we respect them or not. Others focus on how to earn respect. How can we get respect to come to us?

Character is the result of acting in line with who we are. All the character traits, including true respect, are two-way streets.

Respect is a commodity. We supply respect and we demand it.

Our world seems to focus on what we want – demand. We want more respect. How can we earn more respect? What do we do when we don’t receive the respect we deserve?  True respect is very much in short supply. But like the other character traits, we are capable of being a respect-factory. We can supply more true respect.

Supplying true respect requires another trait in short supply, humility. To show true humility and true respect, we need a global, dare I say, Biblical perspective.  None of us are better than any other. True respect requires that I consider others more important than myself. And once I do, my actions will show respect. Even if I make a mistake and offend someone, I’ll be quick to correct it. I’ll work to restore the relationship and make restitution. I’ll work to maintain a proper balance and do whatever I can to live at peace with the other, offended person.

When we show true respect, we experience one additional side effect: we often receive respect. All character traits produce this same result.

If we want more respect, let’s begin with the part we control. Let’s supply more respect to create more respect. If we create more respect, we then have the best chance to create the community and the world we really want.

Originally published in the Owasso Reporter November 2021