Respect: October 7, 2009

TODAYS WORD FOR WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 7, 2009

RESPECT

Defined by Webster:

Esteem; admiration; proper acceptance of courtesy; the condition of being esteemed or honored.

GODS WORD

“Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them RESPECT." Hebrews 12:9.

"Show proper respect to everyone. Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the King.” I Peter 2:17.

WORDS FROM KEN AND DOTTIE

Without question one of the most serious problems facing young people today is their lack of respect. Most young people do not respect their parents, their siblings, their peers, their teachers or even their friends. The root problem is that so many children and parents have no respect for God Himself. How many times a day do we hear God's name and the name of Jesus used in a disrespectful way? For example parents and children are heard saying: "Oh my God, it was awful." This is the ultimate of disrespect and misuse of God's Holy Name and leads to disrespect in all areas of life.

In Exodus 20:7 we are warned that the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name. When children hear their parents misusing God's name they think it is OK for them to do the same. The lack of respect is part of the breakdown of the family unit for our children today.

When our children were teenagers, we can remember several incidents when we as parents had set standards and expected respect from our child in regards to adhering to those standards. When one of our children broke the standard that we had set, we first of all clarified to them the reason for the standard and then issued the penalty. We always tried to be fair and consistent in our response and then we saw that the penalty terms were honored with respect. The penalty was always increased when our child would respond with a lack of respect.

At the time, our child's response was often negative but because we were clear, consistent and fair it rarely would happen again. Now that our children are parents, they fully understand the necessity of setting standards for their families and they expect their children to be respectful to them. This is very rewarding to us to see that children have learned the value of respect and that they are now teaching their children respect and even though they live in a TOUGHER WORLD today their children all show great respect to God, their parents, their grandparents, their siblings, their cousins and their friends.

TODAYS FAMILY PRAYER

Dear Lord, help us to honor and respect You in all that we do. Help us to respect those that we meet with today, including our parents and friends, and let our love for You shine through our lives to them. Help us to honor all the people we meet, loving the unlovely that need our love, and then honoring the Lord in all we do and say.