Everybody wants to be respected—from the small child throwing a tantrum to the older person looking back over his life. But do we always look in the right place? Respect isn't something we get from others. Or from things or events. Essentially, it's something to be recognized not about ourselves but within ourselves.

One dictionary defines "respect" as "to feel or show honor or esteem for; hold in high regard." What are we putting first in our lives? Where is God in our priorities? We can't afford to be so concerned with worldly position and material possessions that we fail to honor God as we should. We can't afford to let the value we put on someone else's human opinion of us obscure our looking deeply enough at the real man.

As we really honor God, and man as God, Spirit, has made him, we see what respect really is. We feel it. We love it. We express it. And our whole life and life style change. Many things that before seemed so important take a secondary place. We experience an inner peace we never knew before. We look for opportunities to express more of God in everything we do, to everyone we meet.

But how do we esteem man as God, Spirit, has made him? By seeing him as he is—spiritual, not material. Man's substance is spiritual. Man includes love, spiritual power, and holiness. He is the very expression of Principle. His worth is irreproachable and unimpeachable. Man can't lose what God has given him. He can't be cut down for an instant, any more than God can lose His infiniteness.

Honoring this concept of man, we begin, in the words of Paul, to "put off the old man" and "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him [God] that created him [man]." ^{Col. 3:9, 10;} Man is infinitely this image. What a spiritual heritage each of us has! Mrs. Eddy reminds us, "When outgrowing the old, you should not fear to put on the new." She continues, "Your advancing course may provoke envy, but it will also attract respect." ^{Science and Health, p. 452;} We'll see that man as God made him—everyone's true being—has spiritual depth. Acknowledging this in our prayers and adhering to it in our practice will give us great peace.

We'll have a self-esteem based on our true spiritual self as God's likeness. We'll see that the human, egotistical self has no hold over us or anyone. Not being of God, this ego has no identity, no entity. When seen in this light, this false ego can't influence us or push us around.

If we encounter an unattractive personality trait, such as destructive criticism or abrasiveness, we won't be impressed. We'll see such traits as not belonging to anyone's true nature as the child of God. We'll look—more deeply if necessary—for worthwhile characteristics shining through. We'll appreciate the good; that is what we're going to respect in every individual.

And so we have a basis for being courteous to others because we're glimpsing—perhaps just faintly—the perfect, spiritual expression, man. As we come to know our true worth (and everyone's) as the fully beloved, ever-secure child of God, we won't feel threatened by what someone is or is not doing or thinking. There'll be no need to cut anyone down—sharply or deceptively, orally or silently. Even should someone's views be in direct opposition to our own, we'll remain unruffled and respect his right to his opinion. This doesn't mean we have to submit to or agree with anything we feel is basically wrong.

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, respected the religious beliefs of the people of Concord, New Hampshire (see The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany 163:27–28). Do we respect the religious beliefs of our neighbors? We can if we really understand that the basis of all being is spiritual. This understanding gives us a broader perspective from which to appreciate another individual's viewpoint. Respecting more and more the man God created in all His might and majesty, we see that man as the only man there is. We're then loving others enough—deeply enough—to see them as they really are: God's spiritual expression. And this prayerful process of putting off the old, putting on the new, "will also attract respect" for what we believe in and stand for.

As a Christian Scientist, I was for a few years an active member of two United Campus Ministry teams, working together to bring spiritual enlightenment to the two campuses. To do this, we had to get acquainted with each other. We discovered we could genuinely appreciate the work each of us was doing. This led to enlightening discussions among ourselves—not arguments or debates—as to our different views. I would never push Christian Science, but I was always ready to answer questions. And there were questions.

I prepared for these meetings by prayerfully knowing that the spiritual man God created is the only true man. I knew no one, in his true, Godlike being, could be pulled away or influenced by any other view of man. I prayed to see God's man—the man I wholly respected—as the truth of everyone. And this meant being more considerate of others, taking an interest in them, appreciating the good they stood for, and making them feel more esteemed.

The result: I was more and more respected by the others, as was my religion, Christian Science. They began to see Christian Science as a Christian religion, planted firmly in the teachings and example of Christ Jesus. Instead of erroneously classifying Christian Science as a cult group, they began to see it as genuinely Christian. And the opportunity even opened up for me to talk about Christian Science at a New Testament class taught by one of them.

At one of our meetings, the one in charge, a Protestant minister, proudly showed us his most recent acquisition, a copy of Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, by Mrs. Eddy. The minister later told me how much he was enjoying reading that book. And how it was helping him. I became good friends with two other campus ministers. We would meet occasionally on our own for good fellowship and the opportunity to share scriptural insights.

We read in Leviticus: "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them ... I will give peace in the land. ... I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. ... And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." ^{Lev. 26:3, 6, 9, 12.} As we continue to walk in His statutes (to see man as God knows him) and keep His commandments (become more Christlike in our thinking, speech, and actions), we'll feel God's respect for us and everyone. We'll see respect is something we can exercise as we understand man's spiritual being, something to express in our daily contacts with others. And as this is genuinely done, it will "attract respect" for the Science that means so much to us.