The topic on my brain today is respect. It seems to me our culture has lost this value to a great degree. I have been made aware of three different cases in the last month where this was a problem and has caused serious contention. One of these experiences I was a part of and I realized how important respect can be for all of us.
My experience happenened when I loaned a family member thousands of dollars to buy a car. I was talking to this person and trying to get the details of the cars she was looking to buy. I wanted to make sure she was going to be making a good investment and that the car she ended up purchasing would last her at least until she could pay me back. During our conversation I could tell that she was getting uncomfortable and her voice trailed off before she hung up on me. Well I hate to admit it but I was livid. I was especially animated when she didn't return any of my 10 or so phone calls or 20 text messages. I demanded that she send me the money back right away. I couldn't allow myself to be treated that way after the large sacrifice I had made for her. Did I not deserve her respect?
We seemed to work through things eventually but I realized that this person is pretty unsuccessful in her life because she never learned the value of respecting authority or people who are giving her much needed opportunities. She has been let go from countless jobs because she doesn't respect her employers enough to show up on time. It seems that eventually if you don't show that you can have respect for others you will never get anywhere in life because everyone who helps you will expect respect in some form or another. If they can't get respect from you then they will turn their attention to others who will give it to them. I just can't see a way around that.
The second instance happened with a friend of mine. Her father volunteers at BYUH and has lead a very successful entrepreneurial program there. For many years he has given his time freely. In past years they have always flown him out for international competitions. Well this year they have a new guy in charge of the budget and he has decided that they will no longer be paying for his flight. This is a person that may be over the program but has scarcely lifted a finger for the programs success. Obviously this also shows a huge lack of respect and has caused a big rift in their relationship.
The last example is at church of all places. It has to do with the young women's president and the camp director. If you ask me the whole thing was set up wrong to begin with. The camp director is a very accomplished person who has several masters degrees in education. She has never been given an official calling which is the first mistake I think they made. She was never set apart or given much of any authority. This from a woman who has been highly respected in most recent years. She would try to get camp planned but she didn't get much cooperation from the president so she planned the camp herself. When she would make plans the president would change her mind last minute and the camp director would have to start from scratch again.
Well after she had put a ton of work into the planning, the president decided that her plans needed to be changed again and my guess is that she didn't thank her for all the hard work she had put into the plan. There was nothing wrong with her theme or plans. Her goal was to bring the young women to Christ through their camping and service activities. Well the camp director blew a fuse, chewed out the young women's leader and refused to continue to help. She has walked away from girls camp all together and refused to give the president any of the contact information for any of the plans she had previously set up. Now the president has to plan and attend the entire camp herself while juggling her four kids and pull in help from other women who just don't have the time to really put in all the work that needs to be done. All because this process lacked respect for others.
I am not going to say that either woman was completely in the right. They both disrespected each other but if the initial respect had been there, none of this would have happened. Girls camp would have gone off without a hitch and the young women would have had a wonderful experience.
I remember talking to my girlfriends one night and I made an anti-Obama comment. I forgot about her strong liberal leanings and she went off on me. She said that he is the president of the United States and as such he deserves my respect. Well after getting snapped at I kept my mouth shut even though I had just been publicly disrespected but I can never agree with the point she made. Give me a leader like King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon and I will give him all the respect he deserves. I don't respect names or titles. I respect truth, honesty, integrity, obedience, service, hard work and goodness.
So then if we were going to look at the principal of respect with our spiritual eyes, we might want to turn to Luke 7:36-50. If we think about the fact that our Father in Heaven has given us everything than we should also realize that he deserves all of our respect. He also teaches us not only to respect each other with his commandments but he constantly tells us to go beyond that and love one another. We are taught in Acts 10:34 that God is no respecter of persons, but this does not mean that we shouldn't respect him above all else. Do you think that God is angry when we disrespect him? Well I don't know if anger is the right word but I have proven that I get angry when I am disrespected and I have not given my only begotten son to pay for the sins of the world.
Our culture is oozing with disrespect for God. People want to take "In God We Trust" off of our money which was a good reminder and a sign of respect. We have taken God out of everything. Our culture has become good at harassing people who chose to honor God. I keep thinking that we are ripening for severe chastisement. God deserves our respect and it seems that he will get it one way or another and I prefer to give it to him than him demanding it from me later.
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