Increasing Acts of Honor

By Dr. Jay Zinn

The application of honor carries different expressions depending on gender, race, age, and geo-political and societal cultures.

I grew up in an age when honor was important to my parents and grandparents. My siblings and I were trained to respond to our elders with a “yes, sir/ma’am” or “no, sir/ma’am. I trained my small children the same way when we lived in the southeastern United States—a common practice in that area of the country. But after moving my family to the Northwest, when my children responded to their new teachers with the same phrase of respect, they were asked not to call their teachers “ma’am” or “sir.” The culture was different there.

Sadly, honor is widely misunderstood, overrated or underrated—even abused and exploited. It is misapplied or not applied in homes, schools, churches, and the marketplace. This is a sad commentary on how little the world values human life and how little people value each other. Much of society’s woes can be traced back to the lack of this very basic need in people—to get along and live beside each other in harmony.

I will address this issue further in my article, “The Significance of Honor,” and Eric Vogen will tell us how to honor our parents with our finances.

If we ever hope to witness an environment of peace, in any area of societal structures, then an accurate, biblical approach to practicing the “act” of honor will be the most impacting key to accomplishing it.

Jay Zinn