Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Do You Honor Yourself?

     The word ~ Honor ~ may seem an old fashioned word and concept ~ ~ 18th century men engaged in a duel with swords or pistols willing to face death in order to defend their honor.

     "But what, you may be asking, "does that have to do with me in this modern age?"

     There is no time limit on Honor, it is ageless.

     Another word for the concept of honoring one's self is ~ Respect ~.  There are two parts
          1 ~ Insist on Respect from others.
          2 ~ Insist that you Respect yourself.

     Friend Ruth and I met for supper, then attended an opening night production of a local Little Theater Group.

     When the curtain opened, an actor walked across the stage speaking such foul, vulgar words that the entire audience gasped in shock.  As the play progressed, all the actors spoke in that manner.

     After less than ten minutes, I told Ruth rather more loudly than expected, ~ "I am leaving, I will not allow anyone to dishonor me as they are doing."

     Ruth said she would stay as she did not want to hurt the actors feelings by leaving.

     I told her that they had no feeling or they would not have disrespected themselves in this way.

     As I neared the door, I was surprised to see that the cashier had come out from behind her table and handed me cash, the amount of the ticket; as she did so, she said "I am glad to give this back, I told them not to waste time on such filth even if the new director wanted it.  And I'm resigning, I don't want to even be near people who talk like that."

     I waited until I was outside to stop to put on my coat, as I was doing so, people began to come out the door, each of whom stopped to thank me for making them aware of the Honoring One's Self concept.

     Ruth telephoned me the next day to say that she had stayed until intermission, then she had waited near the door to see if anyone else would leave, and everyone had except for three people sitting together at the front

     Why had they stay?  In doing so, they were dishonoring themselves.

     Dishonoring one's self could be going to a party and drinking too much, excusing doing so by saying to yourself, "I don't want to hurt my host's feelings by not taking a refill when he keeps coming around and offering.  You could say to yourself or out loud, "I could do that, but it would be dishonoring myself to do so."

Make certain to
make Respect for yourself
a major part of your life.

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