Treating With Respect

Have a little riddle for you. A little riddle. Real simple riddle. What is something that everybody wants, nobody minds receiving, but not everybody always gives? Okay. Put it like this. What is something that we all want? We never mind receiving it. It's always very welcome. But we don't always give it ourselves, necessarily.

It's interesting. You cannot always know what someone likes or dislikes. You meet somebody, you don't know necessarily what they like, what they dislike. You start talking about people's appetites and tastes, what kind of food they like or don't like. Maybe some people love spinach and some hate it, but you can't know a lot of things about people until you get to know them, right? Right. But at the same time, there are certain things that are commonly liked or disliked by all. You can look into a crowd of strangers, and there are certain things that you know they all don't like. There are certain things you know they all do like. See, for instance, everybody likes to be treated well. Everybody likes to be treated well. No one likes to be mistreated. That's just coming to humanity. That's coming to human beings. And we've all heard the expression, the milk of human kindness. Everyone wants to be treated with respect. So what I'm going to talk about this morning, actually not just this morning, but end of the afternoon, because in five minutes we'll be end of the afternoon. Well, what I want to talk about is the subject, and you can title the subject this way, three words, treating with respect. Because I put it in the active phase, not just the issue of getting respect. I've often thought you could rent a place, you could rent, like at the Marriott, or some place where they have a venue for seminars to be held, and put a sign on the door. The seminar is about how to get respect, and you probably get a number of people in there. But I'm talking about the active of the whole issue of treating with respect. Now, first of all, Webster's. Now, Webster's defines respect as high-esteem, courteous, or considerate treatment. Now, that's the simple definition in Webster's for respect. High-esteem, courteous, or consistent treatment. So let's kind of roll those all together in a statement. It's tamed enough to be shown courteous and considerate treatment. When Christ gave the discourse, the message, what's commonly called the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, it was to His disciples. It wasn't to the multitude, it was to His disciples. And you will find no more concise a place in the Bible for Christian living than you will find in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. That discourse is packed with more Christian living principles and laws than any other three chapters in the Bible.

And in that discourse, in Matthew 7, verse 12, is what we call the golden rule. Now, man's golden rule is whoever has the gold makes the rules. That's the way man operates. But here's God's golden rule. And again, you think about Webster's definition of respect, and again, putting it into a statement that is tamed enough to be shown courteous and considerate treatment. Well, that is based on the golden rule. Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, how you want them to treat you and deal with you, do you even so to them.

Use how you would like to be treated as a guideline and a measure by how you treat others. And again, it's called the golden rule. And Christ said, for this is... And a lot of times the word for is synonymous with because. For or because this is the law and the prophets. That's part of the end game.

That's part of the end game that God wants us to get from operating by His laws. Well, you know, sometimes the absence of it, sometimes the absence of respect, sometimes the absence of being treated with courtesy and consideration, sometimes the absence of it teaches us the value of it. Sometimes it's the absence that teaches us how valuable it is. Now, I grew up seeing two people, my parents, treating others with respect because they had each and both had to deal with not being treated that way many times. Dad grew up poor, hillside farming and all, large family.

Of course, so many people were in the same boat, hard times, hard scrabble times. But he grew up poor, very hard working. Dad worked like fighting fire, and that's the way he went at it, but very poor. And we talk about the things of your childhood, how those things of your growing up years can trail you and have an impact on you throughout your lifetime. And, of course, those earliest memories are some of the most deeply impressed and embedded into us. One of the things he remembered from his childhood was not being allowed by the teacher to stand by the coal-burning stove in the classroom in the wintertime.

Because the way it worked, when he was in school, they had the coal-burning stoves and everybody had to contribute some money towards the coal. And Dad was one of those whose father couldn't contribute towards the coal. And so those kids couldn't stand close. It was the ones who could contribute that could stand close. And it may seem like a small thing, but cold rooms, wintertime, coal-burning, and being told, you can't stand there, you've got to stand back away from there over here. Those kind of things. Also, when Dad was just a little boy, there was a time when he couldn't talk very plain.

And he was made fun of for that. Stepping head to when I was a little boy, and I started school. I remember an incident my very first week in school. I mean, the very first week in school. There was a boy in the first grade in my class who would be referred to today as mentally challenged.

He was very mentally challenged. And through those nine years, through elementary and middle, and actually the very first year of high school, the ninth grade, was actually part of middle school there. And when I went on to high school, it was made of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades. But some of the older boys picked on him and made fun of him. And of course, I learned very young that kids can be cruel. In fact, kids can be very cruel, and they can be very carnal.

If you've ever seen Dolly Parton's, the little autobiographical movie that was made of her as a child, the coat of many colors, of course, we're all familiar with the song, and it's based on an actual event, an actual event. And, House, he was so proud of that coat of many colors that her mother had sewed together and was not prepared to run into the laughter and the scorn and the ridicule that she got hit with by the other kids.

It's well worth watching if you haven't seen it to sometimes watch it if you get the chance. Now, kids can be cruel. In this particular individual, there were some boys in particular, which it tends to be the boys many times, all the girls can be too.

They were very cruel, and I just didn't join in. That late afternoon, of course, after I'd gotten in from school, and when Dad got home, he took his shotgun through a little rabbit hunting just to walk down through some of the fields and woods, and he let me trail along. And I clearly remember, and can still see it in my mind to this day, a stomping, sitting on a stomp with Dad and telling Dad about that and Dad telling me that he was happy that I did not join in with the other boys and to never join in to something like that.

And I said that as I grew up seeing, as I grew up, I saw two people, Mom and Dad, treating others with respect, and especially so because they hadn't been. My mother was the oldest of five children. Evelina, who died the other day, was the fourth sibling. But my mother, at age nine, had to start helping out and doing because my grandmother went into mental illness and kept descending into it until it was really bad.

And basically, she was in that condition for about 26 years. Mom grew up with a mentally ill mother. She grew up with a number of people in the community and their children looking down on her and mistreating her and them because of that situation. And there were the statements about, well, you better not go down there.

There's a crazy woman down there. And one incident that occurred when Mom was a kid, they had moved to a town. They had to live there in town for a while. And they hadn't been there very long. Mom was on the front porch, and five of the neighborhood kids came over to run her off. My mom was a 5'2' dynamo. She's done all five kids packing. They didn't bother anymore. Sometimes, in fact, many times, and this is one of the, I guess you could say, truisms, it takes being mistreated to truly realize and truly appreciate how valuable a thing it is to treat people right.

A lot of times, it's because of us being mistreated that we realize how important it is not to do that to others. I started school when I was five years old. Five and a half, to be exact. Straight into the first grade. There was no such thing as kindergarten or head start in the hills of Northeast Mississippi.

They wouldn't have known what you were talking about if you'd have brought up the words. That was only five, five and a half. And that was the last year they had school start in the summer in order to take a fall break for picking cotton and doing that. It was to compensate, but that was the last year that they did it the way they went to what, to the year as we know it now. But I was small from age. Of course, not only being small from age, but being one of the youngest kids at age five and a half.

And I went through the first nine years of school as one of the smallest kids in my class. And school and life has never had a shortage of bullies. And one of the things that we really bear down on and emphasize at these camps we do, no bullying, no bullying, no physical bullying, no verbal bullying, no bullying, period.

There's never been a shortage of bullies in the world and school. And one thing about a bully, they always look for what they consider the easy marks, the easy targets, easy targets. And that always includes the smallest kids. Now, I could hold my own, and I did hold my own, I could hold my own ground and did, though it was never a pleasant experience. But at the same time, there were some who were simply too much bigger, too much older, too much stronger. And I didn't even try because I couldn't. Just had to take it, endure it, I had no choice. But it gave me, in life, it was one of those formative experiences, and it gave me, in life, an early appreciation for the value, for the value and importance of treating with respect. And it certainly impressed upon me from an early age on the need to treat with respect. If you think about that word, respect, and what it actually means, it would prevent so many problems. It really would. It would eliminate so many problems because they simply would never occur to begin with, and that's extremely important because a problematic life is not fun. The more problems you have in life, the less fun there is. And one of the greatest values and virtues that you can teach your children is to respect others. And also, it's beneficial to them because, again, it means they will have less trouble.

You can define or express life in various ways. Here's one way. Life is a relationship matter, isn't it? Life is a relationship matter. We must constantly relate to others. That's part of the fabric of life.

We must constantly relate to others, and the quality and the enjoyment of our life is going to relate heavily to the quality and condition of our relationships. That's just simple. There are certain things that make them work, and there are certain things that destroy them. Ask yourself the question, why do so many marriages fail? I mean, look at society today. Marriage after marriage failing. Why do so many marriages fail?

Why does love and romance fade so many times? There are reasons. It's not mysterious if you think it through. Well, one of the reasons, and it's a big reason, it's a major component factor. Why marriages fail, why love and romance fade away, I mean, that is because respect quits being shown.

By one or the other. Respect quits being shown by one or the other. Sometimes it can be both. But respect, if you think about it, there's a word that we use, and too many times we tie it maybe too much just to emotion. Just the word love, L-O-V-E. Love, as defined by the word agape, God's love is so totally all-encompassing of the good things.

It can incorporate emotion, yes, but it's so far beyond just emotion. Respect is an ingredient of godly love. It is an ingredient of agape. And it's that particular ingredient that promotes and safeguards and protects relationships. You ever notice that friends who properly respect each other tend to remain friends? Their friendships tend to be secured, their friendships tend to be safeguarded, their friendships continue. Marriage is the same way. It's so important. And let me put it this way, in regards to respect. No relationship is safe without it, period. No relationship is safe without it. Now, again, respect is, well, it does hurt and agree, it's an unusual commodity. And it's only respect if it's exercised. If somebody deals in a disrespectfully way, you know, we talk about you can't demand respect, you command it, in the sense that if your actions are such that they're not respected, worthy, it's hard to hold respect for that person in your mind. But you can still treat them with respect. That's the thing about it. I mean, I do not respect so much of our national leadership. I can't. They're not respect worthy. But if I was in their presence, I would treat them with respect. There is a difference. One is the reality of what you cannot hold in your heart and mind for them based on their actions and the fruits of them. The other is how you would treat them if you were with them. And there's a difference, and I think we realize that. But my families... Have you ever noticed families can be prone to have troubles, right? That's no surprise of anybody. Why?

I mean, the closest human unit is the family unit, just like the closest relationship among humans is marriage, husband and wife. But respect to really mean something has to be an action. It has to be part of the operational modus operandi, you might say. Why do families usually have so much trouble? Because, when you think about it, they're close enough to see each other in both each other's faults and fine points. Because we all have faults and we all have fine points. And they're close enough to see both, yes. But they take each other for granted. They don't fully appreciate each other. They don't show respect. And once you begin to take anything for granted, I don't care if it's a physical blessing you have, it's a relationship you have, it's a relationship you have with a loved one.

You begin to take it for granted. You're going to fail to feel or show appreciation for it. You're going to fail to treat it properly with respect. And it's going to fade on you. It's going to begin to fail. See, this is something I really try to convey to young people that are planning on getting married when I'm counseling with them. Respect. You think, oh, our love will overcome anything. You're going to really get to know each other.

And there's going to be times when He gets on your nerves and She gets on your nerves. And you're not always going to see everything eye to eye. And there's going to be hard times come. And there's going to be some tests. And there's going to be irritations. There's going to be this and there's going to be that.

Love will override everything. It's easy just to throw a label out there, a phrase, because of the labels. It will level overcome everything. Yeah. Okay. Flesh that out. Detail that out. Respect is the basis of any lasting relationship period. When the respect goes out the window, the relationship is going to be following very quickly behind it.

You know, there's a saying, the first part of it, and you recognize this, familiarity breeds contempt. That's the first part. Now, Benjamin Franklin was the one that made the statement. His whole statement was, familiarity breeds contempt and children. That was the whole statement. But that first part, familiarity breeds contempt. I add, but respect safeguards and preserves. See, you can't really draw close unless you get close, and respect is needed as a safeguard.

Where does respect come from? Where does this start? Well, respect comes from or out of a mind that holds a certain perspective and view. If I want to live with respect towards others, if I want to live with the MO of showing respect to others, it's going to have to come out of or from a mind that holds a certain perspective and view. And that perspective includes that any individual is worthy of basic respect. That any individual is worthy of basic respect. That no individual should be mistreated.

That everyone is made in the similitude of God with the potential to become God. And of course, we know that potential for so many won't be exercised or fulfilled until a future time, but that potential is there. It is a seeking of, a realizing of, the potential worth and value, and not just what is called the face value of the person. Have you ever heard somebody say, and especially in the context of feeling, well, I don't owe him any honor. I don't need to be respectful. I don't need to show respect. He's just a kid.

You ever heard that? I have. He's just a kid. I have witnessed, sometimes in a congregation, three or four men standing right there together in kind of a circle, talking. And maybe there's a 12-year-old or a 14-year-old or a 15-year-old standing there with the man. And he's there in that circle with the man.

And I have witnessed a man walk up, speak to this man, shake his hand, that man shake his hand, that man shake his hand, totally skip the kid, ignore him, shake the hands of the Lord.

Now, you think that kid doesn't notice that he is totally ignored. He's been standing there with the man as a part, you know, listening, maybe talking some, just listening. Do you think he doesn't notice that the man who walks up and speaks to everybody and says hi and is friendly with him just totally ignores him? He has just been disrespected. But that's okay! Because he's just a kid. That's mean that, and that's wrong.

And it hurts the kid, and the man who does that loses ground, loses credibility, loses proper positive impact and influence with the kid. Or, you could reverse it. In our day and age, in society, how many times is it reversed from the standpoint that, eh, you don't need to go out of your way for him, you don't need it. Eh, don't worry about it. He's just an old man.

Don't worry about it. She's just an old woman. You run into that in society and all. Nah, he's just an old man. He's just about finished his time anyway, so no big deal. So, what do you see?

What do we see? Do we just see a young man, a kid? Or do we see an old one about worn out? Or do we see what we find in Daniel 12, verse 3? As said, respect starts from what you hold in your mind, in your perspective, as you look out upon others. Just a kid? Not worthy of paying attention to? David, what are you doing down here? Eliab said. You snotty-nosed, naughty, prideful kid. You just came here to see what's going on. Why aren't you back there taking care of the sheep?

If you read the account, when David went down, his father sent him. And the way he was met by his older brother, Eliab, David was just a kid. He wasn't worthy of being treated with respect by his oldest brother. David was the youngest. Eliab was the oldest. And there obviously was not a real relationship there. And obviously there was no respect for David. But let's just read something here, and then I'll take it a little bit further. Daniel 12 verse 3, And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

When you see an old man or an old woman, in the truth of God especially, and everybody has this ultimate potential to be exercised, you're not just looking at an old person. You're looking at somebody who's going to shine like the sun someday. That's been scripture, not just here, but other places too. I want to follow up on David with Psalm 37 verse 25. Psalm 37, The years rolled along. Decade succeeded decade. And the time came, David wrote, here in Psalm 37 verse 25, he said, I have been young. And of course, one of the things he could remember was when he went down to visit the army, and how his eldest brother castigated him.

Totally disrespectful to him, and it wasn't anything new to David, because you can see by the fact that David just turned away. He didn't even argue with his brother, basically. He just made a statement and he turned away. But he was evidently used to that kind of treatment.

But he said, I've been young, and now am old. And when David got old, it says that he was old and stricken in years, and his health was so bad, his circulation was so bad, he couldn't even generate enough body heat to stay warm. Totally worn out. And yet, can you imagine, friends of his grandsons, maybe great-grands, coming with his grandsons and seeing him in that condition, and all they saw, you mean this decrepit, worn out old man, who's shivering, they can't get enough covers on, can't even say, worn out.

This is the mighty warrior, the mighty statesman, that long ago, long before I was born, killed the giant Goliath. That's hard to believe. That this is him? He's just an old man, worn out. Yet, he'll be the resurrected King of Israel under Christ, and he'll shine like the brightness of the firmament. You know, again, the view of when you view and think of others, it's just not in the face value in what you see in the moment.

It's what you also recognize about them, not just even in terms of potential, but in terms of their labor of love to God and to others in the work through the years. I have to be at the funerals. I have to do the funerals many times, over the years, of people that are worn out and used up. And I don't just see them as a worn out person. I recall and remember their works before God. And, of course, their family, church family, physical family, honor them and show that honor the best they can through the services, the service that is rendered at the time.

But we have to make sure that as we go through life, we look at those who are old and better and worn out in life, especially in the truth, with the respect that we should. And we also look at the kids who are coming along and realize, you know, where do we lose ground by treating them with respect? And that doesn't push aside the fact that we have to give firm guidance and sometimes correction to keep things on track and to truly help.

1 John 3.2. When John wrote this, John was an old man. He was old. He was close to being completely worn out. He was in his 90s. And he said in verse 2, 1 John 3, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that. We realize that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

All you have to do is read what he is like in Revelation 1, beginning about verse 13. Eyes like flames of fire, feet just glowing like in a furnace, countenance as the sun in its strength. Powerful. And that's how we will look and be. And that's what I hold in vision, again, that is the destiny, the potential of all human beings, but certainly the potential that's being exercised now. And the first verse as far as heading towards that, the opportunity to be that when Jesus Christ returns.

And Scriptures like Revelation 21 verse 7 that talks about, He that overcomes shall inherit all things. I want to read Romans 8, 17. Romans 8 and verse 17, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs, or co-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. An inheritor of the same things and the same powers. See, for the old man, the one about worn out who's in Christ, in one sense, he's on the edge of eternity at death.

It's just a, I blink away as far as his consciousness, till he'll hear the trumpet blowing and be rising. And again, you know, how many times, and if you read with me Psalm 116 verse 15, how many times has God looked upon one of His being laid in the grave after a long fruitful life, Psalm 116, a long fruitful life?

And been there in presence, like with my aunt the other day, who was 84, and been faithful for 62 years since she was baptized into Christ when she was 22, watched Him being laid in the grave with a smile on His face, because God knew her from the time she was born, a child, right on up through growing up, and a young woman being brought to Christ.

How many times has God been able to smile on this basis, precious in the sight of the Lord? Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, because there's field and there's set for delivery into the kingdom of God at the resurrection. See again, to go back to respect, it has to do with how you treat others. It's not age-related. It doesn't matter if it's a 5-year-old, a 10-year-old, 15-year-old, 25-year-old, 45-year-old, 65-year-old, 95-year-old. There are some things in how you deal that are age-related, yes.

But the kindness and how you deal with and relate to respect can be in those words and thoughts and actions. It has to do with how you treat others, and how you treat others starts with your thinking.

He ain't worth it. She's not worth it. He's just a kid. She's just an old woman, blah, blah, blah. No, it starts with how you think of them, and how you think of them starts, too, with how you see them. When I look at human beings, I also look above them and beyond them to where they're going to be someday.

The calling that we all have, the potential, the reason we all exist, it's just that you and I are blessed to be the ones that get to be exercised in that ahead, ahead of others. And here's an important point. In some people, this escapes them. We say this since society. The responsibility of how you treat them doesn't hinge upon whether you like them or not. Well, I don't like him, so I don't have to be nice to him. Oh, yes, you do. Well, I don't like her, so I don't have to be nice to her.

Oh, yes, you do. Well, I don't like him, so I can just completely ignore him. If he walks up, I just ignore him and walk away. No, you can't. Not if you want to put a smile on God's face versus having brown at you.

It's an important point that how you treat someone, the responsibility of how you treat them, doesn't hinge upon whether you like them or not. See, Matthew 5.44, again, going into the most condensed and yet expansive in one sense Christian layout in a particular discourse. Matthew 5.6 and 7. Matthew 5 and verse 44.

But I say unto you, love your enemies. You don't have to marry them. You don't have to go on a cruise with them. You don't have to rent a duplex with them. Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. You don't have to go down and drink coffee with them at the coffee shop. You don't have to do all those things, but you can't mistreat them.

You pray for them and you don't mistreat them. Why? Why is that so important? Because, as Christ goes on to say, that you may be the children of your Father. You want the kind of approach that God has and that He can identify with and that He can smile upon, that you may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven, because...

think about it. That's what Christ is saying, for He makes His Son... the Son belongs to God. He makes His Son to rise on the evil and on the good. They both benefit from it and He sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

That you may be the children of your Father, which is heaven, because this is God's mind. When you operate that way, you have just incorporated another element of the mind of Christ into your makeup, into your fiber, into your being. It's very important. And so, respect in the mind for others translates into and produces a certain approach, just in general. It comes to affect our dealings with everybody. It starts in the mind, it's rooted there, but it flows out in action, and it's an application for and a consideration of another person's feelings and welfare.

It takes them into account. Again, Peter's words that we read in times past, many a time, 1 Peter 2, 17, in this important admonition here in the whole verse, but the very first part, honor all men, or just simply honor all. Now, yeah, we're told to love the brotherhood, and we've spoken on that in previous times. Told us here God, absolutely, and told honor the king. But the first part is something that is just intrinsic to how we should be towards everybody, called and uncalled, honor all.

Just simply have that approach. See, again, respect is all-inclusive, and you don't have to like someone to treat them right. And certainly, things are not going to your liking if somebody is despitefully using you. I mean, that's kind of hard to deal with, and it's a challenge to not react in a bad or negative way.

It's a challenge to respond in a proper way, but you don't turn around and despitefully use them. You don't give them in like kind. You at least show the respect that you don't do in kind to them, what they have done to you. And there's a lot gained in character by so responding properly.

And again, like all of God's ways, it doesn't start with the other fellow. Well, I'll tell you what. When He shows me some respect, I'll show Him some. When He does what He's supposed to, I'll then do what I'm supposed to, maybe.

Have you ever noticed with the New Covenant that God's not talking about the other guy? He's talking about me. See, that's the heavy challenge. When in the New Covenant, when you enter into the New Covenant, all of a sudden it's like, well, Christ isn't talking about the other person.

He's talking about me. In other words, you take and apply it personally. You take it, you read the Bible, you pray, you learn, you grow in knowledge and understanding, and you take the approach that's opposite to what the carnal takes. The natural carnal person says, oh, when they treat me right, then I'll treat them right. When they do what they're supposed to, then I'll do what I'm supposed to.

When they show me some respect, I'll show them some respect. That's the carnal natural way. And I thoroughly understand it. That's the carnal natural way. But God's way, the way of walking in His way and becoming Christ-like is, well, whether He treats me right or not, I'm going to treat Him right.

Whether He respects me or not, I'm going to respect Him. Regardless of what He does, I know what I'm supposed to do, and that's what I'm going to do. And God strengthened me to be able to do it. Please. He's always talking to us. See, the converted take these things to heart because they want to be a spiritual product pleasing to God, and they want to have the mind of Christ. And we want, we want to be in the resurrection so that we can properly help as extremely gifted and talented spirit beings to help those who are carnal to know how to come out of their carnality and become spiritual so they can also join us in eternal life someday, which includes our loved ones, family, blood family, childhood, friends we grew up with, etc.

But the focus, the focus, we put it on ourselves to operate the way we should regardless as to what someone else may or may not do. And frankly, the easiest way to frankly get respect is by giving it, isn't it? It's kind of like he that will have friends must show himself friendly. It's the matter of give. Again, it comes down to what Mr Armstrong always said, that God's way is the way of give versus get. And it starts with a giving attitude. You know, if you ever notice how the things of God are not hard to understand, they're not complicated, really.

Where the complexity comes in is putting them into practice in our lives. And respect, like many of God's truths, it's real simple to understand. It's how you view and treat others. And it starts with how you view them. It starts with an attitude of seeing the other person's worth and value. Whether that potential worth and value is currently being developed or not, it's in your treatment of them and how you operate off of that.

And to show respect is to show worth. It's to acknowledge they have worth. In Philippians 2, and I love the book of Philippians, chapter for chapter, verse for verse, it is as powerful and hard-hitting as any book in the Bible and extremely encouraging. In Philippians 2, verse 3, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. Boy, has that caused trouble down through the years. The world is full of that.

But in lowliness of mind or humility, let each esteem other better than themselves. You know in the old days when the streets weren't in the good condition that they are now, and you're walking the sidewalks and there can be puddles of water in the street and the O-T models and A-models and even the cars of the 30s and the 40s, when a man and a woman were walking down the sidewalk, he would walk on the street side of her.

And the reason that was traditional, the reason she walked on the inside and he walked on the outside on the street side, was so if a car went by, they're walking and the car goes by and hits a mud hole and splashes it, he would catch most of the splash and it would preserve her from getting soaked, maybe, with... I mean, things like that that are just lost in our day and age that people don't even know, why is this done that way?

Of course, that whole thing has changed, streets now. It's a different situation, but still. Or, you know, talking about this seeming other better than stuff, better I get wet than you get wet. You know, you think about that, but the gentleman better he got wet than the lady get wet, or get mud, you know, on them. Or you're walking through an apartment complex and you're on the sidewalk and, you know, you turn the corner and in this apartment complex, you turn the corner and you run face to face into a laborer who is pushing a wheelbarrow full of side dirt.

And there's not enough room to pass on the sidewalk. You see this jacket I've got on, mister? You lowly peon? You see this kite? You know how important I am? Back that thing up and give me room. Push off the sidewalk and, you know, get out of my way. And let's just say the ground is soft, maybe even ready.

Which is easier to do for him to push off into the soft dirt, the tire mire up or into the mud, or to back up the wheelbarrow, or for you to either step off to the side, or you to back up? I think we know the answer, don't we? Hey, hold on. Or without saying a word, you just step off or you go back and you let him have the sidewalk. But you'd be surprised how many wouldn't do that.

Because they don't sustain the other better. They don't ever realize, well, it is more valuable for him to keep coming forward than it is for me to force him into a position.

There's attitudes you see displayed all the time, and the actions you see come from attitudes of the mind, from perspectives, considering the welfare of others. Look not every man on his own things. Don't be concerned only with your own welfare, but every man also on the things of welfare or the other. Let this mind, because that is part of the reflection of the mind of Christ, as it also goes on to emphasize in the following verses, but let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You know, before I got married, when I was single, it didn't matter where I parked my car as long as where I parked my car, when I opened my door to get out of the car, there was no mud hole there.

It didn't matter. It just, you know, as long as I parked my car, it didn't matter what was on the other side of it. But if I parked it in the way that when I got out the door, it was dry ground or pavement, that's all that mattered. But when I got married, it still didn't matter. Ansel could get out in whatever mud hole she wanted to, you know. No, obviously it mattered, didn't it? It mattered. Now, I had somebody else to consider, so now when I parked, I tried to park in a way that there wasn't a mud hole or a puddle in the parking lot or whatever on the other side.

I had to take that into consideration. And I think the easiest...she'll start grinning probably because she'll know where I'm going with this... because the easiest I ever drove a vehicle in my entire life was when I took her and our brand new little daughter from Baptist Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama, and drove out on the road just down two or three blocks and turned into our apartment complex and drove around because the appreciation I had... she'd just given me the most beautiful little daughter in the world. And I was so considerate.

I wish I had remained that way all through our marriage. We lived in a little townhouse, and so she wouldn't have to climb the steps. I even picked her up and carried her up the steps because our bedroom was up on the upper level. Yeah, I'll tell you. When you treat others with respect, and you show respect, you are acknowledging their worth as made in the similitude of God with the potential to become a son or daughter of God someday.

Once you consider something, I am extremely thankful for Rome. I'm extremely thankful for Gaston, and I'm extremely thankful for Chattanooga because it's family here. It's family in Gaston. It's family in Chattanooga, and that's wonderful. But I've also been in situations in times where I didn't have as much to be thankful for because there were too many gaps. Let me ask you a question.

How many of you...and I know no hands will go up. Now, if you listen to the question, your hands won't. How many of you got to pick your siblings, your brothers and sisters? How many of you got to say, Mommy, Dad, this is what I want. I want to pick my brother. I want to pick my sister. I want to pick my brother. Nobody gets that choice, do they? Well, guess what? Let's just take that a layer deeper. How many of us picked the ones God would choose to be our spiritual siblings in the body of Christ? None of us.

And just like we're expected to learn to love our physical brothers and sisters, our parents expect us to, God expects us to learn to deeply love each other and respect each other and esteem each other and be there for each other.

You know, we have a wonderful calling, a tremendous calling. And there's a lot more I could say. I've got plenty more notes here, but it's been right at an hour, so I'll save some more for another time. So anyhow, I'm very thankful for the family that we all are in Christ.