How Do You Demonstrate Dignity?

Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, notes Wikipedia. We may not realize the great impact dignity has on our lives and our relationships. When we feel accepted, we have greater hope for the possibilities in our future.

How do you demonstrate dignity?  Simply treat people with courtesy and kindness. It can be as simple as asking someone’s name or looking them in the eye and saying good morning as you pass them by. The opposite is also true. If you lose a game and you say nasty things about your opponent, you may be acting without dignity.

Sometimes people who don’t look or act like us might cause us to think less of them, but it only takes a moment of thoughtfulness to prove our own dignity.  After serving breakfast to a woman at a homeless shelter she said: “You don’t just give us food, you give us dignity.”   Isn’t that’s how it should be?