Recently, we celebrated Memorial Day. Even though we got to hang out with friends and family and many of us had a three day weekend, Memorial Day is more than just hanging out and bar-b-que. Memorial Day is when we take time to honor and remember the sacrifices brave men and women made by giving of their lives for our freedom. This should never be taken for granted, and our gratitude and respect for them should never be relegated  to just one day. We are blessed because of them.

If you look up the word honor, honor means to have high respect, or regard others with great respect. While we recently took time to honor our fallen heroes, there are many people out there that we can honor daily. In fact, by honoring others around us daily we have a tremendous opportunity to help people Discover God or Develop in their faith. 

What does honor look like? Here is what honoring others looks like:

  • Treat others as you would want to be treated. Christ encourages: “as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” (Luke 6:31). If you want to honor someone, a simple way to start is to think how you would want to be treated and to treat others that way. Better yet, think how Christ would treat each person you come into contact with and treat them that way.
  • honorListen to and hear their stories. Take time to listen to others and their stories. This is particularly great for our “elders”. For instance, in college I did a project where I had to audio tape my grandparents share some of the stories from their lives. It was awesome to hear them share about their lives and stories I had never heard of before. And the best part of it was they felt so honored that I asked them to share stories with me. I was truly blessed by it as well.
  • Cheer someone else on and encourage them. We live in a world where we are focused on ourselves and our achievements. One way you can honor someone else is by cheering someone else on and encouraging them
  • Seek to understand others. Whether you enjoy conflict or not, conflict will happen. However, you can still honor someone during conflict. You can honor them by seeking to understand another persons point of view. Take time to seek to understand where others are coming from and what they are dealing with so you can best honor them.
  • Forgive someone. The forgiveness God gave us through Christ changes everything. As Paul says in Colossians 3:13, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Christ doesn’t call us to sometimes forgive others. He calls us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Honor others by forgiving them.

These are just five ways to honor someone else in your every day life. There are many other ways you can do this such as being patient and showing compassion. The bottom line is that when we choose to honor others by the way you treat them, it can make a big difference in their lives and maybe even help them come to know Jesus better. There are plenty of great ways you can choose to do this. What will you do today?

    • – Tom