When this is missing, we treat each other poorly …

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God wants us to treat others with honor.

When was the last time you heard that?

Have you ever?

Have you ever really learned that truth?

If you’ve heard it in the past, have you learned it and internalized it to the point of routinely applying it to life?

So much of the turmoil among people in our culture today comes down to a resounding lack of showing honor to others.

This lesson of the great significance of showing honor to others really popped out for me many years ago while watching a video of counselor and author, Gary Smalley, talking to an audience on this subject. He delivered his point via exaggeration, asking his audience to imagine with him what it would be like if, after a hard day’s work, he came home only to be met at the front door of his home by an adoring wife and children who drowned him with honor …

“We are just overjoyed to have you home again!” the wife might say.

“I can’t believe someone like me gets to have a father like you!” a child might proffer.

Smalley agreed his example was grossly over-exaggerated, but he pointed to how deeply impacting real honor can be to any of our relationships.

Honor is vital to our treatment of others because it heightens our value and care of others, as illustrated in this story published by OddityCentral.com …

    A Dutch bicycle manufacturer, VanMoof, has come up with an ingenious idea for ensuring that its product is safely transported to itsbox customers.

    VanMoof plans to sell 90 percent of its bicycles online by 2020, but after seeing a considerable number of products getting damaged during deliveries and incurring serious losses, the company was left with two options – rethink its business plan or come up with an effective solution. Luckily, they managed to come up with something so brilliant that it’s bound to be copied by other companies that rely heavily on online sales.

    Creative director Bex Rad wrote on the company blog:

    Earlier this year our co-founder Ties had a flash of genius. Our boxes are about the same size as a (really really reaaaally massive) flatscreen television. Flatscreen televisions always arrive in perfect condition. What if we just printed a flatscreen television on the side of our boxes?

    By simply printing a flatscreen TV on the boxes, they reduced the rate of damaged goods by 70 to 80 percent.

The lesson of this report? When we value what’s in the box, we treat the box with greater care.

The writer concluded with this point:

    In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” When we understand that people have been imprinted with the very image of God, we treat people with greater care.

With that idea in mind, the Apostle Peter instructs us to, “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17 NASB). The Apostle Paul tells us that we should actually take delight in honoring others: “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:9-10).

Have you incorporated treating others with honor into every kind of relationship you have? Do you find it to be a delight to give honor to others?

Scotty