Monday SHINE....

Reading Plan for week of 10/8-10/12:

• Monday 10/8:  Matthew 6
• Tuesday 10/9: Matthew 7
• Wednesday 10/10: Matthew 8
• Thursday 10/11: Matthew 9
• Friday 10/12: Matthew 10

Happy Monday, sweet SHINE girls! Oh my, our reading is so incredibly good!

Can you even stand it? I LOVE reading the nuggets found in the New Testament. Girls, it is so applicable to our every day lives. It really is! I encourage you today to read today's reading in the Message version. It is very clear and plain as day to understand. It hits hard. In a good way.

At church yesterday, our pastor spoke about Humility. I posted about this a couple of weeks ago because I felt the Lord was pounding the word into my heart. 

As I heard our pastor open up the sermon with the word--Humility--I smiled. This subject was exactly what I had planned on posting about today. Isn't God just amazing like that? I guess He thought I needed a little nudge just to be sure we were on the same page. :)

On Friday, I skipped ahead and read today's reading in Chapter 6. That's when I knew Humility would be in my next post.

Humility isn't fun. In fact, it is very very very difficult. Humility takes a whole lot of strength. Doesn't it?

Let's break it down in real terms. 

• Your waitress is rude. Like, beyond rude. 
• Someone quickly pulls into the parking space that you have been waiting on for the last 4 minutes.
• You are standing in a long line at Wal-mart and the register beside you opens up. Someone BEHIND you hops out of line and gets to the register first, when technically, you should have had first dibs.
• Your friend doesn't include you in a get-away with some other friends and it hurts your feelings badly.
• Someone who clearly got to the restaurant after you, gets seated first.
• Your preacher did not speak to you when you left church on Sunday. 
• You throw a friend a baby shower and she is unappreciative and ungrateful.
• You left your friend a voice mail days ago and she still hasn't had the decency to call you back.
• You sent your best friends child a gift in the mail for their birthday and you have not even received an acknowledgement from the mother or the child. 
• You go out of your way to help your friend out--like over and beyond--and the first time you ever need anything, she isn't there for you. 
• You loan a friend some money to help her out. You never get it back, even though she seems to be doing very well and back on her feet. 
• You find out a friend has been talking about you behind your back.

Haven't we all dealt with at least one of these in our lifetime?

What's our go-to emotion? I can tell you what mine is--ANGRY!

Why do I get angry? Because pride takes over and humility is nowhere to be found. 

Our pride makes us feel/think like this:

• Who does she think she is treating me like that?
• I would NEVER do that to them.
• They are so ungrateful!
• Look at all I have done for them and they have done nothing for me!
• How dare they get ahead of me, I have been waiting here forever!
• After all I have done to help her out, this is what I get in return?
• Who is she to talk about ME? 

Girls, we have got to change this. Maybe I am just speaking to me, myself, and I in this post. If so, then so be it. I just know that without a shadow of a doubt, pride can trip us up. It takes us very, very far away from the Lord and His will for us.

Here are some examples of the way God feels about pride:

• The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Obadiah 1:3
• His pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God. 2 Chronicles 26:16
• When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2
• Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
• A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. Proverbs 29:23
• The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. Proverbs 16:5
• Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. Proverbs 16:19
• Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 1 Corinthians 13:4

Yikes! Not sure about you, but this scares the heck out of me! 

God despises the proud. Yes, despises! 

I wonder how the world would change it we all walked in Humility. True Humility. Not false humility. Humility that only comes from Christ living inside of us. 

• Giving others the benefit of the doubt. Every single time.
• Not taking things so personal. It's not all about us.
• Truly forgiving those that have hurt us. In thought and in deed.
• Continuing to be good to others even when they seem ungrateful.
• Never expecting anything in return when helping someone out. Ever.
• Not bashing about someone who has hurt you to another friend. Speaking kindly about them instead. (yes, hard!!)

In all honesty, I am so far from where I need to be with this. However, I challenge us all to practice humility this week. Over and over and over. Practice makes perfect.

throwing pride out the window,

jill