Honour

Honour (verb) to regard with great respect. To fulfill an obligation or keep an agreement.

I haven’t focused on highlighting the various public holidays and events this year. But today I want to highlight two, Father’s Day and Youth Day.

Father’s Day

The word honour is both a noun and a verb. The verb meaning: to regard with great respect and to fulfill an obligation and keep an agreement.

honour (verb):to regard with great respect

I want to honour the fathers who think they are not ‘getting it right’, but keep trying anyway. Fathers who get attitude from their kids (whether 2 years old or 12 years old or 17 years old), and respond in love anyway. To fathers who feel at a loss, out of their depth, ill equipped but still don’t give up. To every father who continues to try to be the best he can for his children. I honour you this Father’s Day.

honour (verb):to fulfill an obligation and keep an agreement

This is my encouragement to fathers. The parenting work never ends (whether they are 2 or 12 or 17). Whether you planned to be a father or not, this is your obligation (but hopefully your deep joy!). Keep going. Keep learning and growing in your role as a father. If you haven’t felt honoured in a while, I honour you today. You matter.

Youth Month and Youth Day.

Today in South Africa it is Youth Day. This day was borne out of tragedy and loss. On 16 June 1976 just over 500 youth, including school students, were shot by police whilst engaging in a peaceful protest against the apartheid regime. I honour those youth who stood up for what they knew was right, protesting the wrongness of the system that kept them subservient and under-educated.

Each year we remember the pain of the past. Unbelievable trauma and loss. But we also get to celebrate young people today. You can read a goodthingsguy.com article on the importance of empowering youth here.

For some beautiful inspiration of what Youth have done and can do in communities, have a look at this video produced by dlalanathi, a local non-governmental organisation doing amazing work in semi-rural and rural communities. You can find out more about dlalanathi on their website.

Youth of South Africa, I honour you.