Respect: Why Some Get It… And Others Get it Wrong

I recently read an article: 21 Easy Ways to Win Respect.

“Easy”…that’s telling.

For example:

• Dress like you are in charge.
• Sit close to the boss at the conference table.
• Stand up straight (they even have a diagram just in case you are not sure what this means).
• Lean in when making a point.
• Give the head nod (a slight one).
• Speak slowly… Pause for dramatic effect.
• Tell people who bore you to get to the point.

Notice that all of these suggestions have a consistent theme:
Externals win respect.
Dress the part. Posture. Be an actor.

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Go ahead. Try these things.
You may win respect…
For about five minutes.

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Regardless as to how well you dress,
How often you give the head nod,
How much you roll back your shoulders,
People will sniff out the real you…
The Inner You.

Why?
Because there is one principle that is not included in their “easy” list:
Your interior life gives your exterior life form.

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Superficial men focus on the superficial and are not respected because (big shock) they are superficial.

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The man who is respected always has one thing:
A deep inner strength.
To have inner strength is anything but easy.

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He knows what he is about and cares less about what people know of him.
He cares not for superficialities.
His concern is reality.
He cares about who he really is, not how he is perceived.

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Mastering external behaviors and appearances is relatively easy.
That is why anyone with a BS radar doesn’t respect such a man.

Working with the God who works on your interior life is arduous work…and such a man commands respect.

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God has the final word on respect:

But to whom shall I have respect, but to him that is poor and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my words… (Isa 66:2)

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Stronger is the man who is willing to embrace his littleness, his personal poverty, and admit that he is a sinner and fears God, than the man who believes himself to be great.

This takes incredible strength.
This demands that one fights tooth and nail against pride and submission to that vile sin.

Everything boils down to knowing who you are in relationship to God.
That is where respect begins.