Just sharing (in words or deeds) with someone in and around your life that they have added value to yours can bring great encouragement to them.  I call this "The Art of Honoring", which gives proper respect to others for who they are and what they do.  Honor results in treating others with proper dignity.  1 Peter 2:17 says we are to honor all people. And this would be especially true of the household of faith, but not exclusively.  It is my observation, however, that honor is a lost art in many of our lives.  Oh, we all want honor on some level or other, but how well do we give it to those around us.   Three observations reveal we need to learn how to honor.

1.  The opposite of honor is dishonor.  This is most often seen in the attitudes of the heart that result in critical spirits, rejection of others, and negative judgments that label and disqualify people from receiving honor in our sight.  We have all been recipients of dishonor, so we know what it feels like and how hurtful it can be. Nevertheless, we need to let the Lord deal with our own negative heart attitudes towards our leaders, and our brothers and sisters so that we don't promote discouraging and dangerous things that hinder the health of the church.

2.  Because we may believe we are to live our lives without receiving honor, we create a culture that thinks that honoring is unnecessary.  We are serving God and  that is to be sufficient.  Our reward is to come from Him only.  In some circles, only God is to be honored, so honoring those around you would be ungodly.   So sincere believers drudge on year after year without the benefit of being honored by those around them.  And if we function in a non-honoring environment long enough, the lack of honor will eventually bring discouragement to our souls

3.   Honoring leadership, mininsters and the like is not the only honoring that needs to be found in the church.  There have been big processionals, large extraordinary lavished gifts, special entitlement, and elevated recogintion of leaders as an expression of honoring, but when was the last time these kinds of things happened to the least among us.  I believe that our leaders need to be honored  (1 Timothy 5:17-18).  However the scriptures plainly show us that is not where honor starts and stops.  In fact, 1 Corinthians 12:23-25 says that we are to give greater honor on those that those that we see as less deserving. 

Above all, we would all agree that we are to continually honor God in and through our lives.  And one of the ways we do that is by honoring those among us.  Honoring is a gift we give to each other and blessing is attached to it both for those we honor and for us who do the honoring.  What an amazing place the church is when it is full of honoring and honorable people.  Children honoring their parents because parents treat them with honor and respect.  Wives honoring husbands because husbands honor and love their wives.  Servants honoring their bosses, and bosses honoring their servants.  Congregations honoring their leaders as leaders treat the people they lead with respect and honor.  And all believers not only giving honor to each other, but showing respect to saints and sinners alike through their dealings, care, and attitudes.  And as for sinners coming to know the Lord, they will be won far more easily through respect and honor, than through rebuke and dishonor.  

I encourage you to ask the Lord to teach you how to honor those around you, how to give them honor and how to treat them with respect and proper dignity. This doesn't come naturally, it needs to be learned and practiced in order for honoring becomes a significant part of our life style, which I beleve the Word of God teaches us that it should.  We seek not to be honored, but to honor.  Surely, the church community will be a much better place through honor than ever it could be without it.