To Undermine Self-Respect Is a Sin

These quoted sentences suggest a subject: “I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.”
That last sentence seems much worth remembering: “To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.” There are those who build up, and those who tear down, those who encourage, and those who discourage. There are those who add to the stature of others, and those who belittle others—from what motives we do not always know—sometimes perhaps from the mistaken motive that detracting from others is a way of exalting themselves.
Often we regret something we have said—something discouraging, something disparaging, something disrespectful to another person. But life would be much freer from apology, and from hurt and from heartache, if we would weigh such words soon enough not to say them—weigh them with the regret that we would surely feel if we know that our words would permanently discourage another person or lead him to lose some self-respect, or some of his confidence in his ability to be better.
No one can quite justify pushing other people down, and no one increases his own stature by trying to take away from the stature of others.
Life is the greatest of gifts that God has given, and no one should belittle that gift in himself or in anyone else, but recognize life’s limitless eternal possibilities, and build up and not tear down, encourage and not discourage, nor make life smaller for anyone or for anything, but lift the lives of others with kindness and encouragement, with patience and persuasion, and not make anyone feel little, and not make life less.
“To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.”