{"id":575,"date":"2017-01-20T21:47:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T21:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=575"},"modified":"2017-01-20T21:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T21:47:38","slug":"living-honorable-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/01\/living-honorable-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Living an Honorable Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bench-forest-trees-path\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My former boss passed away this week. His death was unexpected, and I\u2019ve spent the past couple of days reflecting not only on how much he did for me, but on who he was as a person.\u00a0 The word that keeps coming to my mind is \u201chonorable.\u201d\u00a0 My boss was an honorable man.<\/p>\n

Honorable isn\u2019t a word you hear very often anymore. It sounds old fashioned.\u00a0 It seemed to go out of favor with the baby boomer generation, and it has yet to return.\u00a0 That is unfortunate.\u00a0 Being honorable is a quality that we desperately need to value again.<\/p>\n

We live in a world in which loud-mouthed, crass behavior is mistaken for leadership. Success is defined by one’s money rather than one\u2019s morality.\u00a0 And \u201cstraight talk\u201d is valued over good manners.\u00a0 Whatever happened to being honorable?<\/p>\n

My former boss was an honorable person. His top priority was his family.\u00a0 He adored his wife.\u00a0 He raised two sons with whom he was exceedingly proud because they were \u201chonorable men.\u201d\u00a0 He loved being a grandfather.<\/p>\n

He not only had an impeccable work ethic (in before 7 a.m. every day, and at the office every Saturday morning), but he had an interest in the well-being of his staff. When I got divorced, he sincerely wanted to know if I was OK.\u00a0 He asked me if I could make ends meet on my salary.\u00a0 He told me that he would understand if I needed to look for higher paying work.\u00a0 He and his wife recommended books for my daughter to read, and when my daughter stopped by the office, he taught her to shoot rubber bands, like a real grandpa.\u00a0 He was a true leader because he not only demanded great things from his staff, but he demanded even more from himself.<\/p>\n

As a society, we\u2019ve made progress in two important ways: We\u2019ve established that women\u2019s and racial equality are the expected norms (even if these norms aren\u2019t always achieved). However, there is one area in which we’ve gone backwards –\u00a0We have stopped valuing honorable behavior.\u00a0 Our morals have become flexible.\u00a0 Serving one\u2019s family and society have taken a backseat to serving oneself.\u00a0 Being dignified in how we speak and dress today is considered to be old fashioned.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve stopped taking pride in how we conduct ourselves, both publicly and privately.<\/p>\n

I think many of us want honorable living to become a priority for society once again.\u00a0 Perhaps that is why we are drawn to films like the Harry Potter series and the Avengers.\u00a0 We crave stories about honor.\u00a0 We want to see people grapple with right and wrong.\u00a0 We want to witness people going above and beyond the call of duty to serve society.\u00a0 We want to see fictional people exemplify the qualities of courage, decency and compassion because we don\u2019t see enough of that in real life.<\/p>\n

I was blessed to have a real-life example of what it means to be honorable when I had the privilege to work for my former boss. If you have someone in your life who lives honorably, watch how that person operates.\u00a0 Listen to what they say.\u00a0 Consider how they treat others.\u00a0 Then try to live your own life honorably, and hopefully you too will be both an example and a blessing for someone else.<\/p>\n

(Photo Courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My former boss passed away this week. His death was unexpected, and I\u2019ve spent the past couple of days reflecting not only on how much he did for me, but on who he was as a person.\u00a0 The word that keeps coming to my mind is \u201chonorable.\u201d\u00a0 My boss was an honorable man. Honorable isn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-honorable"],"yoast_head":"\nLiving an Honorable Life - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/01\/living-honorable-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Living an Honorable Life - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My former boss passed away this week. 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