#39 {Strive}

"Strive"

A lot of my food for thought lately has come from a sermon I heard a couple of weeks ago about pride vs. humility. Wow! Was that convicting! The verse from Philippians 2 about "considering others better than yourself" was read. (That was the reading we chose for our wedding ceremony almost eight years ago.) The preacher's point was that all of the commands in the Bible are very hard to comply with if you don't approach life with humility.

So, I started this little exercise. At night as I sort through my day or plan the one ahead, I ask myself..."What would it look like if I had considered/do consider others better than myself in 'x' situation?" For instance...some family was coming to celebrate our son's birthday last weekend. I get very stressed when company comes and often get very crabby as the result of all the preparations. Going through the exercise, I realized that my stress is mostly about pride in this case...what will they think of my housekeeping/cooking/parenting, etc.? If I consider them better...I should just love them to pieces, appreciate that they made the trip, put out the candy dishes, and so on. I need the visual in my head as a guide for my own behavior. (I'd like to say that it made me a totally loving hostess, but it really just helped me make a little progress in the right direction.)

All that to say, that I really am striving to be this person God intends for me to be. Humble. Kind. And it begins, really, with Christ. But also with me...considering another better than myself.