Honoring when no one else is looking is a test of character and heart. A byproduct is living a life with blessing.
Have you ever gone through an isle in the grocery store and seen a pack of steak sitting in the candy isle? Everytime I see something like that, I wonder where the person who left it there is in life. I bet many of those who have done that didn’t think much about it – but, in addition to stealing from the store, it’s also dishonoring.
Or, another example, have you ever known someone who’s been on vacation and, as they’re leaving the hotel room, they keep the TV and all the lights on? Unless we do that at home, why would we do that on vacation? That’s not respecting someone elses property. If we do those things, we’re just incurring additional costs to the building owner.
Most of us might not think of honoring people by their posessions; we usually think honoring in terms of people, such as highlighting someone in front of a group of people. With honor and respect comes things we normally don’t associate with those: honor is a form of humility. This is an easy way to check honor because it quickly reveals the heart.
The byproduct of honor is living a life of blessing. I think, if you honor someone else’s possessions, you’ll be in a better position to be blessed. It all comes down to managing and stewarding what little you have. If someone is wasteful with a hotel rooms electricity, why would that person be trusted with having more?
This is actually the first part of an occasional topic I plan to post about honor. I feel it’s greatly been lost in the dissocial landscape of which we live. However, similar to the examples above, dishonor has always been there, it’s just now in the forefront. Since it’s in the forefront, people now think it’s okay and normal since it’s flippantly shown everywhere. The premise of these posts will always be this: honor is a form of humility which leads to blessing.