Someone is always saying something about this generation. Like they’re spoiled or they’re selfish or they have entitlement issues or the granddaddy of them all, they’re disrespectful.
Well, you know what…if they are it’s because they’re being raised that way. People don’t take pride in how they rear their children anymore, sometimes the parents act worst than the kids. Their morals and character has changed and they think that every passing fancy is the right way of doing things simply because it’s what everyone else is doing.
It use to be that whether you were rich or poor, black or white, children respected others and they definitely showed respect to their elders. These days they could care less about their elders and most assuredly about any adult.
Back in the day, which is what I always compare things to because that was during my generation, we wouldn’t even say certain things around older people. There was a level of respect we had for them and showed them. So to get back to the question in the title, we were taught that.
We were also taught to respect authority, like our teachers, something that’s almost unheard of today. Teachers have no control or rights anymore and a lot of them can’t teach their classes.
While we’re teaching our kids to love themselves and to have self-esteem, which we absolutely should do, somewhere along the way something’s getting lost in translation.
We have to do a better job of teaching and we have to lead by example. Children learn from what they see us do and they learn by being trained. You have to be a healthy, self-respecting parent in order for your child to be a healthy, self-respecting child; who will grow into a healthy, self-respecting adult.
So many times you see people teaching their children to say certain things or do certain things that’s not respectful, thinking it’s cute. Then once they grow up doing those things the parent says they don’t know where the child got it from. Think about it! Just like you teach bad behavior, you can teach good behavior.
Respect means:
- a way of treating or thinking about someone or something
- high or special regard, think much of
- a feeling of deep admiration for someone elicited by their abilities, qualities or achievements
If we don’t teach this to our children, how do we expect for them to be respectful to others? Or even to us? We are our children’s first examples. We have to be polite and kind as parents in order for our children to be that way. They don’t come here with it programmed in them.
As a Christian, respect is what you have for God and what he wants us, and teaches us in his word, to have for others.
It is hard to do in the world today because there’s so much negativity and so many that condone bad behavior. Everywhere you look there’s something awful happening. Children do dreadful things and don’t get reprimanded. A lot of the times the authority shames the victim. It’s no wonder children think that’s the way it should be and the way they should act.
But if we are in Christ and He in us then we learn how to rise above all of that. We learn how to do better and be better. We study his word and gather with other believers to learn as much as we can about him. We want to please him and part of that is showing respect and being respectful to others.
You can almost always recognize a child that’s being raised in a Christian home. You can identify them by their actions. They’re usually respectful to their parents and their teachers. They are also respectful of others and their opinions and are generally just an all around good kid. Who wouldn’t want a child like that? They’re not perfect, none of us are but they care about and respect others.
It’s hard raising children these days…if I were you instead of following the world and doing the selfish thing, I’d follow Christ and do the selfless thing.
Well like I stated earlier, R-E-S-P-E-C-T is a taught and learned behavior. In my opinion the world would be a much better place if there was more of it.
Luke 6 : 43-45
43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
