Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Honoring one another

By Pastor William Jenkins

July 27, 2006

Gary Smalley is one of America’s best selling authors and most popular speakers on human relations. In one of his seminars, he does a very interesting thing. He pulls out his old violin. It’s obviously an antique and also obviously in need of repair. It doesn’t look like it could be worth much at all. In fact, it really looks like a piece of junk.

He holds it up high for all to see, and then he says, “Do you have any idea how much this violin is worth? This may surprise you, but it’s actually worth close to a million dollars, because if you look through the opening on the face of the violin, you see inside some very special words: 1722 Stradivarius.’”

When he says that, the audience goes “AHHHH!” Then, he goes on, “If you will honor other people like that, it will change your life. It’s the greatest relationship principle I know of. I want you to go home and write on the forehead of your mate, your children, your friends the word ‘Stradivarius’, because they are much more valuable than any violin.”

Much of the unpleasantness in our relationships comes from considering other people to be of little value. Whenever I am tempted to think poorly of someone I remind myself that God loves them. If God loves them He must know something about them that I don’t know. If I knew what God knew about them, I would love them too; therefore, I should see the Stradivarius within them and honor them.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org