Humility, ahh.... what a beautiful word. It looks beautiful too, have you ever noticed? There is nothing ugly about humility. Although I must admit that getting to the place of humility is often very, um... un-beautiful. An example, you ask? Of course!
Went to the park this week to enjoy the sun and some friends, have ice cream and let the kids play and it was wonderful except for about five seconds... and, of course those will the be the five seconds I remember.
I was standing and talking to a long lost girlfriend, munching on a small cupful of peanuts because... well, because I was slightly hungry and I figured that was better than stuffing my face full of ice cream which is what I really wanted to do in case you were wondering. ;0) At any rate, I was talking animatedly about someone who got on my nerves because of their extreme peppy-ness.(is that a word?) I know! I know! This really is the pot calling the kettle black and believe me, I got my cum-uppins! (Is that spelled right?) SOOOO! I was talking about how the peppy-ness was annoying and began to imitate the person with a little dance. (Enter small cup of peanuts, stage / hand right.)
As I was jumping up and down the small cup of peanuts became a rather large shower of peanuts on some very good friends of mine and some very good friends of theirs. I think I even beaned one sweet gal in the forehead, sigh. I swear to you, every head under the pavilion turned in my direction, some of whom know me well and just shook their heads at the sight I was that they see so often. Others who didn't know me very well (and most likely don't care to at this point), I'm sure wondered what kind of lunatic I was. As I stood feeling my face get hot and beginning to apologize for my exuberance, I was struck with the irony of the situation.
Hmmm, there I was criticizing someone for their peppy-ness and MY peppy-ness is seen by all and in a most unflattering light. Wow, humility came crashing in on me very quickly. Criticism doesn't have to be a negative thing. It can be a very positive thing, but when it is done with pride, it becomes one of the most destructive tools of torture a person can use. Pride took hold of the conversation I was having and for a few moments turned it's claws on me and dug in. I recovered quickly and my sweet friends overlooked my red face, peanut mess and kindly turned their heads back to their own conversation. A couple gals even made a cute joke to take the pressure off the one standing uncomfortably in the middle. Thank the Lord for faithful friends. ;0)
Lord, I wanna be humble, could You please help me stay in a place of being humble instead of having to get there all the time? Thank you kindly... Love, Nell
"Pride leads to disgrace,but with humility comes wisdom." - Proverbs 11:2
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