"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."
James 4:10
Thinking about humility today, as the opposite of pride. I've never been great at learning it, but I think at least a beginning is recognizing God and his greatness, and that compared to that, we have a lot to learn, although "a lot" is a laughable understantement. :) Perhaps the harder part is the "supposing that [we] are better one than another" (Alma 5:54). I think we learn that comparison and judgement from the world, but abandoning it is hard because that is the way we think about things sometimes. Maybe the answer there (well, the answer is always God, but I mean a mental way of thinking about it) is just comparing ourselves to ourselves. Are we better than we were before... are we growing or regressing? Instead of just coasting through life and letting things happen, are we recording who we are? Do we have goals for becoming better? If we put as much effort into self-improvement (in God's way of course) as we do into the rank/power/political games of corporate America, or politics, or even unfortunately interpersonal relationships, then I think we could improve greatly.
Today, let's recognize our humility in the presence of God, but also, let's change the way we compare. Let's compare ourselves to ourselves. Let's consider our own failings rather than the failings of others. Let's plan improvement and changes for our own behavior. When we consider God's word, let's think about how we can change to accomodate God rather than about someone else who needs to change. Let's give others grace and love, and not judgement. We have enough to worry about trying to sort ourselves out. :)
