Respect

Never look down on anyone.
You do not know whether the spirit of God
Prefers to dwell in you or in them.

Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers

I always counsel married couples to find a joint purpose (the Biblical recommendation is to be better together for the Kingdom than ever apart) and to know just one important truth: respect is golden. Why did you marry him if you didn’t respect him? Why did you give your life to her if you didn’t respect her? Many times people simply aren’t thinking about respect but rather money, sex or emotional security. Other times people hide who they really are and, with short engagements, the truth never comes to light.

Nonetheless, once you are married, respect is essential. You are now one person, a unit, a team by defintion whether or not by practice. If you tear down your spouse, you are tearing apart your own marriage and insulting yourself. Even if he deserves it or she is really messed up, you still insult yourself and destroy your marriage further, for no good result will come from disrespect. The truth is that anyone can change; so once bound together, we should prosper things that will make us better together.

It is the same in our ogranizations. Tearing apart other leaders or followers only weakens the organization. Certainly some will leave and others will take long periods of time to mature but disrespect will not help the equation. This doesn’t mean that we need to be “mamby-pamby” leaders who constantly stroke the egos of our people. Enough of that! Expect people who have no expectations but respect people for their potential and for what they are doing and no matter what – don’t serve a day of disrespect. If in business someone is worth that much disrespect, then fire them. However, be careful because in the end it might be our disrespect that stole their opportunity.

Leaders DO have an impact in what they say!

We want to apologize for the failure to release Friday's article -
unfortunately one of our Editors fell ill without warning.
Your prayers for her are appreciated.
Thanks for your patience.
Here's Friday's article.