Respect isn’t something that is deserved, and it isn’t something that can be earned. This is a topic that must be deeply understood and covers a variety of things other than respect.
Whether one chooses to believe, or whether one refuses to believe, the best thing to do isn’t either one of those. The best thing to do is to accept the truth and abide by it; truth is…
…. as humans, we are deserving of nothing at all. For one to feel as if they deserve anything puts them in a place of entitlement to be demanding. Therefore, if one feels they deserve respect, then they themselves automatically rules and sets their own position up higher to them being entitled to demand respect and rule that they can demand that it be shown or they entitled themselves, claiming ownership to be in authority to demand respect and authorize that it be given to them no matter the circumstances.
This is absolutely an improper way of thinking. This is one of those situations where deception often gets the best of us humans. For some, it could be a bit confusing and difficult to comprehend at first, which also is understandable. However, by remaining in position as human beings, accepting our position in this world as so, paying close attention, and recognizing such differences between one thing and another helps do away with confusion.
But the main thing is to accept the things we cannot control; accept that we are deserving of nothing. Yet, instead we all should be treated the same because we all were created as humans the same. All should be treated fairly, with no differentiation due to skin color, race, cultural background, etc; no higher pay or lower pay because of one’s race, no employee selecting based on color rather than qualifications and skills, etc.
It can’t be that we sometimes we deserve respect and other times we don’t. Either we do or we don’t deserve respect at all times. We cannot be only deserving at selective times. Therefore, because there’s no way we can deserve respect at all times due to our sins and imperfections, we can’t possibly be deserving of respect at all.
How can we humans be deserving of anything when we all have been given the same free will to choose opposing options, regardless to anything else that would or could happen?
How can we humans feel as if we’re deserving of anything when humans don’t even deserve to live?
We certainly don’t have the option to earn additional days to live on Earth. There’s nothing we humans can do nor is there anything of our doing that can measure up to even be simply considered as us having been earned enough to deserve to be handed additional days to live in this physical life.
Now, respecting others and the elderly is something we’ve been taught to do. It’s something considered as a good practice or a good moral to instill in our offspring. And it is. Why? Because it shows that we have the ability to respect Higher Authority, ultimately respecting The One and Only Highest Supreme there is, it bears witness that The Highest One truly exists, that all goodness exists as well, and gives credit where credit is due.
That’s the only reasons respect is such a thing and is shown to the elderly and amongst one another, and NOT because any man or woman deserves it, whether old, middle age, or young.
We know the phrase, “You must give respect in order to get respect.”
Well, it means just that! We don’t give respect to become a deserver or demander of it. We don’t give respect and automatically become a deserver or demander of it either.
It’s simple, we give respect in order to get respect returned to us.
Well, what about those who you give respect to that you don’t get respect from in return?
It was said that you’ll get respect in return every time you give it. We should be able to determine this already due to the existence of imperfection and rebellion.
Besides that, it’s everyone’s free will to choose NOT to give others respect, even after they’ve gotten respect from someone. Hence the reason no one deserves to be respected because one can demand respect until they’re blue in the face and will still end up not getting respect from others. Likewise, one can’t demand respect from someone else when that one and someone else were both equally given the right to choose not to respect others. This is ultimately due to the fact that humans don’t own any rights to be demanding or deserving of anything. Likewise, we don’t own any rights to own the ability to earn anything that’s worthy of being gifted to us either.
The reason no one has the capability to deserve, earn, or gain respect is because there’s nothing any human can do enough of to pay up, to pay off, or even reach the amounts of endless limitless measurements in order to set forth a gaining experience, when such experience doesn’t and will never exist.
Meaning no one can deserve, earn, or gain respect by putting forth all of their mightiest strength and best efforts into working, and then take all that hard work and exchange it for the capabilities to deserve, earn, and gain respect.
You can work up to your best, putting in better effort each time, and no matter the amounts of hard work you committed to, performed, executed, and no matter how impressive you’ve been, no matter that it’s your very best, no matter the extra amounts of time and overtime you spent giving the upmost respect all the time, will still leave you empty-handed, leaving you without any spec of credit to exchange for getting respect from individuals who don’t, refuses, or can freely choose not to.
Just because one respects all others, they shouldn’t expect to be respected in return. It creates a false sense of entitlement of deserving something, like respect, when they don’t.
In other words, expecting to be respected creates a false sense of entitlement of one deserving to be compensated in the form of respect and that it be given back in return, for how one is supposed to be towards others, regardless if they’re getting the same or something else in return or not. (This may need to be read numerous times to grasp the concept.)
The same goes for giving. When one gives to others, they shouldn’t expect to get anything in return. Otherwise, giving freely from the heart wasn’t their intentions to begin with, nor could the intention exist.
Just as we don’t deserve mercy and forgiveness, which we can’t earn those either, mankind are deserving of nothing. We weren’t created to go about demanding things or to be deserving of things. We weren’t made because we deserved to be made humans. How could we if there wasn’t a need for us to be created in the first place?
Why do we need to exist? We don’t. So, why again, are we entitled to deserve anything when we are not needed to be in existence?
I think everyone wants to be respected. We should all respect each other, but, some people don’t or wont give respect. There’s an old saying, “To get respect, you give respect”. Now, I don’t know if that works or not. Some people you can give respect, but they wont give it back. So, I don’t know if I gave you the answer you were looking for, but that’s all I have.
Thank you for your comment Josie.