Our world is short on respect. It’s the norm to be offended, fuss a lot, and treat others rudely. I totally get that one. Most of the time, I don’t struggle to treat people respectfully, except when they get snarky with me. It’s easy to return snark for snark.

Here is where we need to become very counter-cultural. Let’s treat others with respect regardless of what they do or say. It’s a Kingdom dynamic and it brings healing and blessing.

frustrated wife

I’ll own it’s not always easy to be respectful and can be especially hard in marriage at times.

When you are working to be respectful, it’s easy to worry you won’t be treated in kind. If you and your spouse have been fussy with each other then, yes, you will be respectful and they might not be. However, here is the fun part, your change to respectful speech has a very good chance of infecting your spouse.  🙂  We tend to respond in kind, so ongoing respectful speech is likely to rub off on him or her.

I think the other thing that I’ve worried about is being seen as wimpy or weak. If I’m being respectful, I won’t look tough and strong. People will think they can just walk all over me. And, honestly, sometimes people try. I just have had to learn to hold my ground (respectfully) and let people figure out who I am.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. It’s a culturally confusing topic and it’s going to be a bit more challenging than usual.

 

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