Everyone wants respect, but do you give enough respect to earn some for themselves? 

Respect is earned, not given blindly. Respect has been a huge issue for me, I give a certain degree of respect to everyone as a person. I respect their opinions, beliefs, and decisions. However, if I get betrayed, that respect drops to the floor. In my eyes, that person loses the basic respect I give to all Human beings. But, if someone does the opposite, and shows time and time again, they have seen the respect I give them, and with their actions and words, have earned more respect. Then, I begin to respect them as a friend.

I am going to put this into  imagery words. Imagine, that the amount of respect you can give is a glowing form of yourself, if nobody betrays your respect, that level never goes down, but once you start to be betrayed, that level of self respect will go down. This leaves an opening for horrible thoughts: 

“Am I good enough?” 

“Is something wrong with me?” 

“Is this all my fault?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“What did I do?”

“Why do people continue to hurt me?”

You are scarred, I am scarred, but those scars will remind us of what has hurt us, and teach us to make, and take precautions. Using the same example as before, if that level goes all the way down it will lead to hyper-respect for others, and absolutely none for oneself. This, leads to an understanding of ones inner self, just by looking at someone else, you can see visible signs of pain and show compassion. These signs are not visible to the naked eye, it is something the subconscious learns to see. However, once the subconscious notices these signs, they cannot be forgotten, or unseen. Overall, respect is a virtue and cannot be taken blindly, given blindly, or expected. Remember to respect yourself, as well as others. Thank you.