"Scar Face"

      Recently, I was learning about humility. What a humble person truly looks like and lives like. One of the characteristics of a humble person is teachability. I read that and I thought, "I consider myself a pretty teachable person..." We all probably do. A teachable person is willing to be taught, instead of thinking they already know. Right? But how well do we get that right every time? I know I am still learning and will continue to learn true humility. 

      They say it is better to be humble than to be humiliated. And, if I may add, it will be our pride that humiliates us. That's pretty deep, right? But it is true. 
Our pride will cause us to leap before thinking through a situation.

      I remember when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I was walking home from the grocery store with my mom and younger sister. My sister and I loved to skip down the sidewalk, walk on the curb and even run downhill. Well, one particular day, we were walking home and we said to each other, "Let's race." My mother's immediate reply was, "Don't run." She must have had a bad feeling about it, but she always tells us not to run. So, because nothing has happened any other time we didn't listen, we decided to run anyway.

      Well, that was the day my pride humiliated me. I ran so fast that I tripped on the crack in the sidewalk and fell on my face, sliding downhill. Ouch. I literally slid on my face! In a moment of being disobedient to my mother's instruction, my face was bruised so bad that I wanted to hide from the whole world. And that was just the beginning. 

      Once the initial impact was over and a few days went by, my face started to look A LOT worse. 

      It was so bad that I didn't want to go to school. I didn't want to be seen by ANYONE. I said to my mother, "I look like something out of a horror movie!!!"
But, it was my fault, so I had to go anyway. I had a favorite stuffed animal I used to sleep with: A mommy panda with her panda cub attached. I remember waking up one morning and the fur from it was stuck to my bruises and I had to pull pieces of it off. Talk about agony!! I learned my lesson that day. 

      One cannot become humble overnight, or a few weeks, even months. True humility should be a lifetime goal. If you think you are humble, there will be many situations to test and prove that. Don't let your pride humiliate you. Learn from your mistakes. I could have saved myself so much embarrassment and low self esteem if I had just listened. But, I couldn't change what happened. I could only do my best to not let it happen again. By LISTENING.

      That is just ONE example. There are many. But sometimes we just need to listen. We need to realize that we don't always know, and sometimes the things we are told not to do, is really for our own good. The Bible says in Proverbs that, "A wise person receives instruction..." and that a "fool despises wisdom." I was a fool that day. 

      But, I was quickly reminded that anything can happen in an instant. That day, it was my face. One day, it could be your life. Don't be the fool. 

1 comment