If you’re not showing others honor in your home, you’re probably not doing so outside your home, either

While scanning through tweets on Twitter this morning, one from a minister jumped out at me.

The fellow used his 240 characters to note how, after 30 years of ministry, he’s come to a conclusion that giving honor to others isn’t most needed in the church, or at work, or even in our culture — it’s most needed in our homes.

I agree.

You see, if your character hasn’t developed to the degree that you’re consistently and genuinely showing honor to the people in your own home, chances are you aren’t doing it outside of your home — at least, not genuinely or consistently.

Honoring others and showing them preferential treatment is important enough that the Apostle Paul made it a specific exhortation:

“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.

I remember watching a video years ago by a Christian psychologist on this subject. To get the point across, he greatly embellished a scenario of a husband/father coming home from work. His wife and children met him at the door, and for several minutes the man raved on about how wonderful his wife and children were, how blessed he was to see them, how he couldn’t believe he was so privileged and so richly blessed to live and share life with them, and so on.

The people listening to the illustration laughed because none of us greet family members coming home like that.

Not even close.

In fact, we may take little to no notice upon a spouse rolling in from work or a sibling returning from school. Or if we do, we don’t start with honor, but instead with our gripes about the day.

Research shows we’re statistically more likely to be physically harmed by someone we know — including people in our own household — than by some stranger or “criminal.”

We’re not honoring one another in our own homes, and because of that, we haven’t developed the habit of honoring others anywhere else … unless we have to.

Imagine for a moment what the impact could potentially be in your family relationships if you learned to genuinely and consistently express honor to your spouse … your children … your own family.

And imagine the potential impact on the relationships and general human interactions in your life if, after learning how to make a habit of honoring the people in your own household, you took the habit outside your home to all the other areas of your life.

You couldn’t live a selfish life and do that, but do you think the quality of those relationships and human interactions might improve?

Then this:

“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,[e] and take delight in honoring each other,” Philippians 2:3-4.

Scotty