Saturday, January 5, 2013

How Low Can You Go


Several weeks ago my mom gave me a Bible study book called the The Mind of Christ by T.W. Hunt and Claude v. King.

It had been my dad's, so I was really excited to get started.

But.. I was nervous. I am notorious for starting things and not finishing them. (just check the last date on my post) I knew this was one I wanted to complete.

So a few days ago I began..not exactly at the first of the year, but pretty close. As the title indicates, this study is to help you to be like and to think like Jesus as much as possible while on this earth.

The first few pages began by giving the characteristics of Christ. One mentioned was "lowly" with a scripture reference of 
Philippians 2:3 which states "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

Esteeming others??

Here all this time I thought I had "humility" down..which is kind of funny because do humble people really know they are humble? I mean you can't brag about being humble, right?

I learned that being lowly or humility is not about belittling ourselves. ( I am pretty good at talking down to myself, so if that was the case...I would have been ok)

It is not even about us.

It is about others. 

Encouraging and esteeming (which means to respect and admire) others. Being humble is servanthood. Christ is the perfect example of this.

I was so far off the course of lowliness that it actually embarrasses me. 

As I look over the past year and think of all the opportunities I had to encourage or esteem a brother or sister in Christ..and didn't and usually because of my pride, it saddens me. Sometimes I would find it hard to give praise or admiration where it was due, because I felt that in someway it highlighted my own failure. 

Strange, yes. Self-esteem issues..um probably. I don't understand it and I can't explain it, but I have asked forgiveness for it and hope that this year I will do better

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By the way....Happy New Year....Six days late!!!