Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. Rick Warren
"When it comes to change, there are three seasons of timing:
(1)People change when they hurt enough that they have to,
(2) when they learn enough that they want to, and
(3) when they receive enough that they are able to." - John Maxwell in Leadership Wired, June 2003
"All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why." - James Thurber
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“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” Rick Warren
I can’t help but wonder…if there is an important and, perhaps, often missed correlation between loving yourself and being humble, thus, “thinking of yourself less.”
I can’t help but wonder…if you don’t love yourself, do you have to, as well as choose to, think of yourself more?
If you don’t love yourself, do you choose to live in “meland” in order to get and keep all those “things” that are necessary for you to tell yourself that, most assuredly, you are not only loved but that you are worthy of being loved?
If you don’t love yourself, do you choose to live by the guiding principles of “meland” so that you share nothing with no one; and so that, to make yourself feel loved, you elevate your worth and value in your own eyes by choosing, in any and all ways possible, to put others down.
I wonder…if you don’t love yourself, do you feel that you have anything of “you” that you can give away?
I wonder…if you don’t love yourself, do you feel that you have anything of “you” that is worth giving away?
I wonder…if you don’t love yourself, are you willing to give any of “you” away; or do you choose to keep it all for yourself?
Are you ever willing to “think of yourself less and to think of others more.”
Perhaps, it is not as difficult to be humble as it is to love yourself.
Perhaps, it is more difficult, than being humble, to believe, truly believe, and accept as fact, that, even with and especially because of all your human faults and imperfections, anyone can love you.
That you deserve to be loved for who and what you are.
No, no one deserves to be loved, but we are loved. Loved by the One Who loves us beyond human imagination and all words with an unconditional, unmerited, and unending, all-sufficient grace.
Hard to believe let alone accept, isn’t it?
As easy as it is for us to “think less of ourselves” it is that difficult for us to believe, truly believe that the God of the universe and of all creation loves us, loves me.
I wonder…if we learned to love ourselves as God loves us, would a transformation occur in our attitudes, our thoughts, and our actions?
I wonder…if we learned to love ourselves as God loves us, would we be able to “think of ourselves less”?
I wonder…if knowing that God loves us just as we are, would that enable us to give ourselves away to others?
Would that enable us to know that we have an overabundance of love to share with others?
Would the knowledge of such love manifest itself in compelling and radical humility?
Would the gratitude for such love and for such a God willing to shine such love on us, cause us to humble ourselves before Him and humbly, with the utmost humility, serve others because we know it pleases Him?
I can’t help but wonder….
But…first steps first: we have to start by loving ourselves as God loves us.
Oh Miss Cyndy. That’s a tough one. Loving ourselves as God loves us. We have a hard time with that one, dont we? How many times do we ask God to forgive us of something over and over again? It isn’t so much that we don’t trust that he forgave us the first time; it is that we have yet to forgive ourselves. I wonder….if we loved ourselves as God loves us; would we be able to forgive ourselves the way God forgives us?….would we be able to believe that we are capable of all that God believes we are capable?…..would be be able to fully understand all that we can accomplish in this world? I wonder.
I think you are on to something, Miss Tammy!
Trust and surrender…surrender and trust out of gratitude for undeserved and unmerited grace.
Trust and surrender…surrender and trust as we so often are told in the Bible.
Trust and surrender…surrender and trust to live not in “meland” but in “Heland” in order to bring Him honor and glory.
I wonder, too….
I hope….
I pray….