“Humility reveals, to the smallness of our human self-awareness, its power. In effect, however, when we are more conscious of both our gifts and limitations, we will be more free of the blindness of pride.” – Pope Francis

Having pride, or being proud of something is not a bad thing. I, like many parents, am very proud of my two children. They are one of the greatest gifts that God has ever bestowed on me and my wife. I celebrate the accomplishments they make, and I can go on and on for days about them. I am proud of the team that I work with. They all accomplish amazing things together on a daily basis. I could not be more proud of them. I am also proud of my accomplishments, the things that I have seen and done in the short time that I have been on Earth. All of these things give me great joy and happiness. I think that everyone has something in their lives that gives them that kind of joy.

It is when we push the pride onto others that we run into issues. We all know those individuals who use the accomplishments that they have made to be more of a show boater than a humble person. Whether they use their accomplishments to make you feel small, or try to drive a wedge between you and others, we all have experienced this type person at some point or another, and if you are like me, you have the same negative reaction. It turns into a brag fest, and in some cases we feel the need to put our own accomplishments in a side by side comparison, to try to out do one another.

A person who is humble understands that they have accomplished many things, yet they let those accomplishments speak for themselves. I have personally been both of these people in my life. I have been so prideful of my accomplishments, just to try to impress those around me, or be of a higher stature than I really am. That only brought me limited happiness, false friends, and did not do anything to help further myself in life. It only led me down a road that is dark and lonely. It did nothing for any relationships and it only hurt others.

I have been working really hard to keep myself from being to boastful. I am learning that just being silent, and humbling myself before God, has given me so many more things than just spouting off my big wins in life ever will. I personally know what I have done, and if asked, I will share everything, but I am not out putting it on display anymore. There is nothing that I have done that is anything more spectacular than the next person. I am learning that, I don’t have to put myself out there to get noticed, if it is a true accomplishment, people will recognize it right away.

I pray that I can keep being humble in all aspects of my life.