"I Just Wish You Would Respect Me." 2 Kings 5

 9. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

You texted me, "I just wish you would respect me."  

My response was, "Please ask your mother whether she thinks that I respect you."  

   If you respected me as your father at that point in the past, you would have honored my response and done as I requested. You would have asked your mother. It would have been a simple thing to do, as you lived with her on the Graham Sherron Rd. property at that time, when I was driving a school bus.    
  If you did ask your mother, you got your answer and likely did not treasure it, at least you did not apologize to me for your indirect suggestion that I did not respect you.  

       You used the verb form of respect, which (below) the Google definition has for its opposite, to despise. That suggests that I do not love you. That is unthinkable for me. You learn such speech from this culture, but not from Christ.  

Martin Buber: 

   Christ teaches us to engage and subject ourselves one to another. A modern rabbi, Martin Buber, wrote the standard expression for Western culture regarding how to treat another as one made in the image of God, in his compact seminal work, I and Thou.  (As well, here is a brief but helpful description of the difference between the childish "I/It relationship" and the maturing-in-Christ relationship characterized by "I/Thou."  

     My nutshell synopsis of Buber's I/Thou is that you are always willing to listen to another person if you truly respect him or her, all the more so if the matter seems important to that person he seems to take it seriously. But in essence, you treat him like "an authentic other being" (This is the opposite of solipsism, which in its extreme sees none other in existence save himself). 

    I read Buber's book when I was 21 years of age, my first summer in Boone, NC, and I was struck through by it. I realized that I needed to use it as a model for my growth in Christ and proceeded to embed it as a habit for how I related to other people. In raising my children, I did not swerve from this, but endeavored to stop and listen whenever my children called upon me; listen to them; and give them a serious response. To not listen to another party is to create a state of war, and to judge the other person, at the least as being one not worthy of your time. This is not flattering. Nor does it predict well growth in the freedom of Christ.  Rather, it predicts well the fall into addiction and enslavement to one's own aberrant desires. 

  

    The response to your suggestion that I did not respect you was my best response and I cannot improve upon it even unto this day.  My wife knows me best of all people here on this earth.  She has the courage to answer your question, and her strongest expression will be her facial expression, her body posture, and the tone of her voice if she speaks.  Sometimes her best answer is in the absence of speech.  But she always gives an answer, for she loves you and sacrifices for you daily. She is the quintessential mother.  If you need a kidney, you've got one from her.  

  

   If you did not do as I requested and ask your mother whether she thinks that I respect you, then I suspect that your position was not much unlike Naaman's hesitation to wash in the Jordan river seven times, when his servant told him, his hesitation was only related to his pride, for he would have done it without hesitation had he been told to do some difficult and challenging task.  

      I believe that if you had asked your mother, you would have been presented with a clear opportunity to change and step into greater accord with reality.  Nothing your mother would say about me would ever suggest that I do not respect you.  

I/Thou: 

     However, from Buber, we learn to treat others the way we would want to be treated if the shoe were on the other foot.  If I were to tell you that I believe you do not respect me, I would tell you in person, given the gravity of the topic.  

    As well,  I would feel it keenly incumbent upon me to provide at least a few salient examples of action and/or speech which fit the definition of respect below (Google Search).  

     Then finally, I would equally feel the responsibility to listen carefully to your response.  But, I would not isolate myself from you, and shoot arrows from afar." Rather, I would engage you and treat you with the respect of being what Buber terms "an authentic other." My work as a teacher was useful in helping me learn by habit to treat all students equally.     

I Thou:  

1. https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~akantor/readings/BuberMartin-i-and-thou.pdf

2. https://manusdb.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/52_phenomenology_r.pdf

Family: 

1. What does it mean that “unless the Lord builds the house” the builders labor in vain (Psalm 127:1)?
     https://www.gotquestions.org/unless-the-Lord-builds-the-house.html

2. What Does the Bible Say About Family Problems:
     https://www.gotquestions.org/family-problems.html

3. 

* Why Be Catholic and Not Just Christian?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJCbCs-y1_k

    

Google Search <respect>
re·spect

/rəˈspek(t)/

noun  a feeling of deep admiration for

1. a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
Example: "the director had a lot of respect for Douglas as an actor"
Similar: Esteem, regard, high regard, high opinion, acclaim, admiration, approbation, approval, appreciation, estimation, favor, popularity, recognition, veneration, awe, reverence, deference, honor, praise, homage,
Opposite: contempt

2. due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others.
Example:  "young people's lack of respect for their parents"

Similar: Due regard, consideration, thoughfulness, attentiveness, politeness, courtesy, civility, deference,

Opposite: disrespect

verb

admire (someone or something) deeply, as a result of their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

"she was respected by everyone she worked with"

Similar: esteem, admire, think highly of, have a high opinion of, hold in (high) esteem, think much of, approve of, appreciate, cherish, value, set (great) store by, prize, treasure, look up to, pay homage to, venerate, revere, reverence, adulate, worship, idolize, put on a pedestal, lionize, hero-worship, honor, applaud, praise, favor,

Opposite: despise

Buber's Breath of Eternal Life: