I recently felt inspired to examine my thinking regarding humility. A couple of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of humble are “not proud or haughty: not arrogant or assertive” and “reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission.”
I’d had my own company years ago, and it took being assertive in a positive way to become the businesswoman I was. I didn’t classify that as a bad characteristic. But me, proud? Haughty? Arrogant? I certainly had answers for questions about church government, and I wasn’t afraid to speak them. Were those answers strident opinion rather than humble suggestions? I began to assess my motives.
I had been elected First Reader at my church. Was I proud to have been elected or humbled to have been chosen? Was I reading to the congregation with my opinion of the Lesson-Sermon coming forth or with a divine message from God to His children coming through clearly? I knew that I am just an instrument. I am not the Pastor. Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of our Church, designated the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, her Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, as our Pastor.
