MATURING TO MODESTY

When I get a compliment, I must be very careful or the compliment burns a hole in my ego until I can tell someone else about it. I just can’t let it sit there and warm me. There is tendency to share what was private to me/us with someone else because we need the greasy self-admiration that comes from boasting.

It starts like this… ‘I don’t know if I should share this or not, but…’ And then the ego pops, and by reaching as far back as possible we are able to pat our self on the back while telling another of how wonderful we are.

Everyone likes a compliment. It is normal to be, or want to be, appreciated. But it is for others to give the praise to us and not us to ourselves. Solomon wrote:
“Let another person praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips” (Proverbs 27:2).

Blowing our own horn makes a dull squeaky sound.

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus