Respect – Please

Shocked again.  Sunday I saw a man and woman with a small boy walk out of a Denny’s without paying.  What I saw today put spoiled icing on the rotten cake.

Coming to a red light at a busy intersection I was watching young people with containers going from car to car collecting money for the Jimmy Fund – Cancer Research.  People were putting their hands out the window with cash as the collectors walked to their cars.  Catty-cornered across the intersection from me a window came down, a hand came out which then flicked cigarette ashes into the container as it neared.   After the light turned and I could proceed I took special note to see the scumbag.  It was a teenage girl.  I feel very sorry for the man that marries her. Without a conversion experience this will without a doubt be someone her high school senior class should vote to be the one destined for a life of misery.  Sorry about the derogatory term.  I thought about replacing it with something less offensive.  I asked myself what Jesus would have said.  Then I remembered Matthew 23 and decided it was right to retain the word.

Is a little respect too much to ask?  In Romans 12:10 Paul exhorts us to honor others.  He even goes so far as to tell us to prefer others over ourselves.  In Philippians Paul encourages us to adopt an attitude of humility and to labor to do all we can to advance others.  One of my favor pictures of Jesus is found in Mark 1 where Jesus reaches out and touches a leper while the man was still a leper. True respect for self can only be real when it is a reflection of our treatment of those about us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 29, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org