Hi guys, this is a letter from your dad to you. This is written years before you were born, I don’t know what life will be like when you get here, but what I do want from you is knowing what respect is and having respect for those you should.

Respect is a foundational principle by which everything positive in life is built on. Loving your neighbor as yourself requires respecting them. To respect someone is to treat them how you would love to be treated. It will involve occasionally taking someone else as a priority ahead of yourself.

Life is fun, enjoying those fun moments will sometimes result in blurry lines where you could end up treating someone else badly for your own amusement or to please a third party. That is disrespectful. Irrespective of the station in life of the person you are interacting with, you should continually treat them with respect.

Respect is not exclusively reserved for those older than or above you. If you treat those you are above with disrespect, it is just as bad as treating someone above you the same way. Treat everyone fairly and never be a party to disrespect. Neither by silence nor by ignoring a situation.

As important as respecting others is, taking respect is just as important. Never allow someone blatantly disrespect you. If someone you respect opts to continually disrespect you, irrespective of the consequence, walk away from them and begin to deliberately alienate yourself from them.

Some people will accept corrections when it is brought to their attention, others will choose to ignore your feelings and remain insensitive and disrespectful; these are the ones you need to avoid. It might seem tempting to disrespect someone who has disrespected you, but that is never the right response.

Someone else who was not a witness to the first disrespect will see you avenge yourself and loose their own respect for you. Two wrongs don’t make a right, neither are you supposed to wallow with pigs in the mire. Rather than engage in a disrespectful situation, step back and walk away.

Respect is reciprocal. The same way you give it unreservedly, you are also deserving of it unapologetically.

NB: I should never hear that you disrespected your mum, I will have to beat that disrespect out of you.

Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator and Creative Writer.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. @IJoswil

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