Day 14 – Humility is freedom from pride or arrogance, or the quality of being humble. In the Bible it says that pride comes before a fall. Therefore, humility could prevent us from falling.
In addition, humble people are a lot more pleasant to be around. No one wants to listen to some bozo brag about what a great person he is. That gets old fast.
Pastor Rick Warren said, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” That makes sense to me, and I would add, humility is thinking more of others or thinking of others more.
Some people confuse the word humility with humiliated, and it is definitely not the same thing. Humility is something we acquire intentionally, but humiliation is something done to us. Humiliation is being reduced in the eyes of others, or being embarrassed, and that never makes us feel good.
People with genuine humility will not boast about their accomplishments, but will allow others to praise them and just say “thank you” and move on. If we truly do things worthwhile, people will praise us; we don’t have to do it ourselves.
Truly humble people put effort into staying humble, realizing its importance in character building.
Patrick Daniel, CEO of Enbridge, a huge energy and pipeline company, said it this way, “I have learned through the lives of great leaders that greatness comes from humility and being at times, self-effacing.”
Meditation for today: I need to be willing to allow others to praise me, rather than praising myself to others.
Prayer for today: God, help me to stay humble.
Steve Holder 