respect

This summer I was on a trip where I took care for confirmands and at one point we talked about respect. What respect means and who deserves it. I was kinda surprised that all of them said that only people that respect them deserved their respect, although you have to keep in mind that they were just 13 so in the beginning or even in the middle of puberty, maybe not even or just starting to think about these kind of things.
To put it in a nutshell, what my thoughts about this were when I lay in bed that night, that if everybody would only respect others under the condition that they respect them first, nobody would actually respect anyone. You are the one to give the first bit of respect so your counterpart is able to do the same. For me I think in terms of this you have to put yourself first. Give before you expect to get. Also I think that respect is REALLY important when it comes to literally everything and you can spare someone from so much stress and worries if you just endow them that little bit of acceptance called respect. They deserve it.

P.S: Be thankful for the respect given to you.