Honor

-I admit that this a last minute thing so I didn't really think it out.
I had my music on and one of the songs mentioned the word "honor" which
became my inspiration for this blog. If we honor someone, we show respect or
high esteem for them.

Of course, the first one we honor is God. His honor must come before that of
people. We honor God by giving Him praise and worship DAILY. I also think we
honor God by obeying Him without a lot of questions. Afterall, He knows what
is best for us even when we don't understand and/or like it. I kind of got
put in my place on this one. The Holy Spirit told me something. My response,
"I don't understand, Lord" His response to my response, "I didn't call you
to understand. I called you to obey ". Another way that we honor God is by
living out our day-to-day lives with integrity. For those of us that carry
the
label Christian, other people expect to see integrity in our lives. They are
watching and are sure to pick up on any slipup.

We also need to give honor to those in authority over us. We all have the
authority of government over us. It is so easy to start grumbling and
complaining about what they do or don't do. As if we could do any better!
But that is not showing them honor. If we don't agree, at least we can keep
it to ourselves. In a church, the authority figure is the pastor. One way
that we can show him or her honor is by cheerfully doing what is asked of
us.  In the workplace, most people have bosses. But do the employees honor
the boss by doing the required task promptly and without complaining or
dishonor the boss by doing it reluctantly and, then, grumbling about the
boss to other employees? Complaining about the boss seems to be a widespread
disease. I am sure that, in the past I have done it but that doesn't make it
right. Kids are to honor their parents. Unfortunately, in our modern North
American society that doesn't seem as prevalent as in other times and in
other cultures.

Then we need to show honor to each other. If we honored each other more,
there would be less gossip, backbiting, slander, shady business deals, etc.
How do we honor each other? One way is by looking for and affirming good
things we see in others. Just thinking it won't make them feel honored. And,
sometimes, we have to look for good things in others because positive
attributes won't always jump out at us. For Christians, we honor other
people by seeing then the way God does. Easy to say, not so easy to do. If
we just honored and treated each other the way we would like to be honored
and treated, this would a much better world.

Finally, we need to honor ourselves. By this, I don't mean getting all
puffed up and full ourselves. But I do mean that we need to see ourselves as
God sees us. God always sees the best in us but we tend to focus on worst. I
have a problem with this so I am speaking to me too. Because I can't do
anything, it is easy to start thinking that I am useless, in the way, blah,
blah, blah. But that is not honoring to myself. Or to God, either.

To sum up, then, let's make more of an effort to show forth honor. To God,
to those in authority, to each other and to ourselves.