March 2021 Touchstones Ministry Theme: Respect

March 2021 Readings from the Common Bowl

March 1: “How would your life be different if you stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter? Let today be the day you look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey.” Steve Maraboli

March 2 “Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.” ~ Roy Bennett

March 3: “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.” ~ Laurence Sterne

March 4: “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.” ~ Anthony Bourdain

March 5: “Once we give up searching for approval, we often find it easier to earn respect.” ~ Gloria Steinem

March 6: “You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.” ~ A.A. Milne

March 7: “I don’t believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person.” ~ Eduardo Galeano

March 8: “Tragedy in life normally comes with betrayal and compromise—by trading in our integrity and failing to treat life and others in our life, with respect and dignity. That’s really where the truest and the most tragic failures comes from…, they come making the choice to betray another soul, and in turn, giving up a piece of our own.” ~ José Harris

March 9: “If you spend your life sparing people’s feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you can’t distinguish what should be respected in them.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

March 10 “It is better to be respected than it is to be popular. Popularity ends on yearbook day, but respect lasts forever.” ~ John Bytheway

March 11: “One of the sincerest forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ~ Bryant McGill

March 12: “Defensiveness is usually someone silently screaming that they need you to value and respect them in disguise. When you look for deeper meanings behind someone’s pain you can then begin to heal not only yourself, but others.” ~ Shannon Alder

March 13: “Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.” ~ Timothy J. Keller

March 14: “Respect other people’s feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them.” ~ Roy Bennett

March 15: “Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.” ~ Richard Branson

March 16: “I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don’t even invite me.” ~ Dave Barry

March 17: “Respect is not a one-way street.” ~ Henry Rollins

March 18: “Trust is earned, respect is given, and loyalty is demonstrated. Betrayal of any one of those is to lose all three.” ~ Ziad Abdelnour

March 19: “It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.” ~ Fred Rogers

March 20: “Tolerance only for those who agree with you is no tolerance at all.” ~ Ray Davis

March 21: “Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.” ~ Mark Twain

March 22: “The grandiose person is never really free; first because he is excessively dependent on admiration from others, and second, because his self-respect is dependent on qualities, functions, and achievements that can suddenly fail.” ~ Alice Miller

March 23: “We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” ~ Aldo Leopold

March 24: “I would rather be alone with dignity than in a relationship that requires me to sacrifice my self-respect.” ~ Mandy Hale

March 25: “Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a …[person], a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life….” ~ Elizabeth Goudge

March 26: “If they respect you, respect them. If they disrespect you, still respect them. Do not allow the actions of others to decrease your good manners, because you represent yourself, not others.” ~ Mohammad Zeyara

March 27: “Your suffering needs to be respected. Don’t try to ignore the hurt, because it is real. Just let the hurt soften you instead of hardening you. Let the hurt open you instead of closing you. Let the hurt send you looking for those who will accept you instead of hiding from those who reject you.” ~ Bryant McGill

March 28: “You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.” ~ Sarah Dessen

March 29: “Respect for the fragility and importance of the individual is still the first mark of the educated person.” ~ Norman Cousins

March 30: “Listening to each other and respecting each other aren’t just nice ideas. They are matters of life and death.” ~ Alan Jones

March 31: “Respect is love in plain clothes.” ~ Frank Byrnes