Putting Honouring into Action

In the last couple of weeks there has been hashtag trend on twitter entitled #IHonourYou. I have always been a huge fan of honouring people and it's been wonderful to see so many positive tweets zooming around my twitter feed, it's even made me think about starting up my Honour Spotlight posts again. I think it's important to recognise the goodness in people and to celebrate it. I am, as most of you know, quite the anti-hype, anti-fad kinda gal and I'm always looking for way to put my theology and beliefs into action. For what is the point of theology if it is not practical? So I've been thinking about how I can physically represent my belief in honouring people beyond the Twittersphere.

Words can be powerful in their significance but also in their meaninglessness. If I honour someone with my words but then forget about them with my actions, then I have not honoured them at all. If I am only choosing to honour the people that I am closest to, then surely my 'honouring' has just become another popularity contest, another way for people to feel excluded? I want to honour the goodness in everyone I meet, regardless of whether we know each other or get on well. For a while I was so worried that I was leaving people out, that I was forgetting to mention someone or in fact MOST people who I would naturally feel inclined to honour. Then I realised, that for some people, a simple tweet is not enough. For example, the bible tells me to honour my parents and there's no way that a few lines could ever express how much I respect and appreciate them. Sometimes, I need to tell them with my words that I love them, but I know that my actions always speak the loudest. It's my ACTIONS that they appreciate most.

So, let's pull together and think about what honouring really means. Honouring is about making a person feel valued or appreciated. Now my love language is Quality Time, so something that makes me feel honoured is when people take time to communicate with me, hang out with me or just generally grace me with their presence. I LOVE IT. For another person, a small gift, like their favourite book or favourite type of pen or perhaps an act of service like a cup of tea and a biscuit during a study break will make them feel loved. It doesn't have to be a BIG action. It can be as small as a quick Facebook message saying that you miss them or as simple as a THANK YOU. One thing that I'm terrible at, is texting back. I make a lot of excuses about touch screen phones, autocorrect and texting in different languages, but the thing is, it is not honouring my friends or indeed my parents. So, one thing that I'm deciding to do is to make sure I don't forget about the people who have made time to send me messages. I want to be better at communicating with my parents, because I know that one simple skype conversation, or a cheeky email makes them feel honoured. I also want to be better at communicating with my friends, particularly Laura who I'm sure feels like pulling her hair out  on many occasions, on account of my inability to text back. 

Here are some more examples of putting honouring into action...

 I know that my Dad felt honoured when one of his colleagues nominated him for the chance to run with the olympic torch. He also felt honoured by the number of people who came out to see him run.

 Like I said, I feel honoured when people spend time with me. One example of that is when my friend Louise agreed to have tea with me on our penultimate day in Bristol.

My friend Jessie honoured me by letting me stay for a weekend when I was having a hard time over the summer.

I felt appreciated when Sophie and Laura came to visit me in Germany for a weekend. The time, money and effort they put in to see me, made me feel valued.

Now what are YOU going to do to honour the people in your life?