One of my biggest pet peeves is when people show a lack of respect for others. It seems that in today’s society, social graces focus less on respecting others and more on a “me first” mentality. How do you teach your kids to show respect?

During my quiet time recently, I read from 1 Peter 2:17 “Show proper respect to everyone, love your Christian brothers and sisters, fear God and respect the king.”

After reading from that passage, I began to think about ways we could show others respect: letting others go first at a traffic stop, not engaging in an argument when we have a difference of opinion, when we don’t pick up a spirit of offense, when we treat others like we want to be treated, maintaining personal boundaries (like only contacting people during daytime hours).

There are so many tangible ways we can show respect toward others, and doing so is Biblical. God wants us to show respect to everyone. He is basically saying, everyone deserves our respect and in doing so we show love to our Christian brothers and sisters, as well as showing God’s love to those whose behavior would be easier not to show respect toward because it hurts or it offends or we disagree with it. But respecting others is Biblical, and in doing so we show reverence toward God and His will and His way.

God loves it when we show others respect.

I try to teach my children how to show others respect:

1. Saying Thank You for Gifts
One way is that when they receive gifts, whether it is from their friends or my friends or family members, it is respectful to say thankful. When someone has sent them a gift, they have learned the importance of sending a written thank you note. We have taught them that when someone thinks about you so much that they go to the effort of picking out a present and spending money on you, the least you can do is acknowledge that and say thank you.

2. Honoring Sunday Family Time
Another way that I try to teach them respect is that Sunday is family time, and that is not the time for them to be calling others’ homes and interrupting their family time and the Sabbath.

3. Honoring Family Dinner Time
A third way that I try to teach them respect is that when we sit at the dinner table, there are no electronics there and we also don’t answer the house phone if it rings while we are eating. If a call is really important, the caller will leave a message and we will call them back after we are finished eating. But our dinner time is family time and our family is important. We want to give our time and our attention to those who are present at the dinner table.

4. Limiting Phone Calls and Messaging to Day Time Hours
A fourth way that I try to teach them respect is our rule that there will be no phone calls, text messages, or instant messages after nine o’clock at night. I stick to that rule too with the exception of a couple of friends who are on different time zones or who get home later at night and have given me permission to message them later. In this technology-driven age, it is so easy for people to ping you in the middle of the night when they are up, or to send you a text message in the middle of the night when they think of something. But by and large, those are nonemergency messages that don’t need to be sent when you are trying to sleep, and out of respect, should be kept until waking hours. I can count on one hand the number of people I have given permission that they can contact me any time, day or night in an emergency. But for most people, why would we not be courteous enough to just wait and contact them during the daytime hours?

5. Cleaning Up after Dogs When Walking
Another way I try to teach them respect is that when we walk our dogs in the neighborhood, we always make sure we clean up after them.

6. Holding the Door Open
Holding a door open for someone else to go first shows respect.

7. Talking in a Calm Voice
Talking in a calm voice shows respect.

8. Saying Thank You for Services Rendered
Saying thank you for services rendered shows respect. What a difference that makes to the person you are thanking. It is so easy to criticize, but too few people take the time to say, “Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate what you did.”

9. Showing Respect to God
How about when we show God respect? Like when we recognize that He is God and we are not, and we don’t have to know everything He knows. He just asks us to believe and trust.

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There are so many ways we can show others respect. Perhaps things we used to do and need to get back to practicing. I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions for how we can show respect in the comments below.

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