We all want to be respected. Many times we end relationships because of a lack of respect. Do you think it’s cute or funny when you see kids being sassy? However, it’s not so funny when those kids get older and become disrespectful and rude.

We don’t have to like the President to respect the office. We don’t have to agree with the city official but we respect the position they hold. We don’t have to agree in an argument, to agree to disagree and end with being respectful to one another. Respect is so important to our own sense of self. To be respected is very basic. To give respect also one of the most basic of attitudes to maintain.

The definition of respect gives these synonyms: esteem, regard, admiration, reverence, deference and honor. I would point to the last two. To have deference to another or to honor another or even yourself. It’s difficult to give respect when you don’t even hold yourself up to the same standard or expect respect for yourself.

Dionne Warwick had a hit song about R E S P E C T. It’s actually what we crave from others. We can handle if they don’t care for how we dress or our speech. We do however, want to be respected for our work and the job we do. We want to be respected by our mate. We want to be respected for the volunteer work or the work at our church. We know our children love us but how much more if they respect us.

Now how do we show respect when we are completely in disagreement with something? We have to rise up above the situation and be respectful in spite of the urges to do otherwise. Even if the other person hasn’t earned our respect, we will respect ourselves for not going into the gutter with them.

One of the common things I hear about patient’s experiences elsewhere is that they had to wait in the waiting room for 1.5 to 2 hrs even when they had an appointment. While it is not always possible for a doctor’s office to stay on schedule, it is also disrespectful to the patient’s time to have such lack of control over the office schedule by taking too many walk ins or disorganization or whatever the reason may be to make a patient wait that long for their appointment time. Then add to that many of them only get a 5-7 min exam after waiting for 60-120 min would make me mad as well.

So how does that come back to me? Let’s keep our standards for ourselves high. Let’s be respectful of other peoples time, money,and their property. Let’s keep those high standards so we can hold our heads up in pride for the respect we hold ourselves to.