Humility
My son came home from his coach’s pitch baseball game glowing with pride and excitement – “I hit a home run, Mom!” Of course, a home run at this age is any ball that goes far into the outfield and doesn’t get back to the pitcher very quickly because of fumbling hands and short throws. Nevertheless, I knew it was a good hit. And he was so proud of himself.
But, there’s a fine line between taking pride in an accomplishment and becoming a proud person and we’ve been having that discussion in our home a lately. The girls redecorated their room and made a place to present all their trophies and ribbons and awards. One daughter commented that she didn’t have nearly as many as her sister and it just about brought her to tears. The funny thing is: I don’t think I had as many awards as any of my kids do. Part of that is just that my kids are more involved in competitive events than I was, but I also think that we are becoming a society where we “celebrate” and award every little accomplishment. When a 12 year old can’t find space for all the trophies, you know something is out of proportion.
There’s a big difference between being excited about completing a task or reaching a goal and bragging about it. That’s the line we have to watch. People don’t want to know that you won five race, have a 4.0 GPA and made it to the state competition in forensics. That isn’t what makes a person – that’s just stuff to put in a resume or on a wall.
The problem with over-awarding our kids is that they have an inflated view of themselves. They think they are much better at everything they do than they really are. I’m all for good self-image, but what happened to humility?
I think in our efforts to reach out to those with low self-esteem, our society has created a monster of pride. There is this perception that no matter what, I’m better than you at something and so I can feel good about myself.
Woah! Isn’t that a little scary! God doesn’t tell us anything like that in scripture. He says we ought to think that others are better than ourselves and that we ought to have the attitude of a servant just like Jesus did. (Philippians 2:3-7)
Even in our church circles, I fear we’ve lost sight of this vision. We put our leaders up on a pedestal and they lead from the front with a big spotlight shining on them to show us how great they are. As followers of Jesus, we must be careful to keep an attitude of humility – that is what God honors. God never put the spotlight on the best and brightest. He chose the smallest (think David), the least likely (Rahad, a prostitute), the commoner (fishermen), the person who wasn’t eager to get up front and shine (Moses). God never highlighted people who were trophy winners – He looked much deeper than that and found people who knew they needed Him.
Maybe I’m preaching a little to myself here today too since I love to speak in front of people and share truth. But do I love it because I want the attention of being up front or because it’s what God’s called me to do and I’m acting out of obedience? And is my attitude always one that relies completely on Jesus – because I need Him, I desperately need Him if I want to be successful in any way.
An attitude of humility is what enables us to draw close to God and without this, we have nothing. All the plaques on the wall will never get us any closer to God, but a heart that knows its emptiness – that’s the key to knowing God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” (Matthew 5:3). Do we recognize that our spirits are poor, empty, weak? That’s humility and that’s when God gets to work in our lives.
What a powerful message, Heather. I see this every day at my work.
Nice post.