This post is in honor of my mom who passed one year ago at age 98! Along with the advice in the devotion she also said, "growing old is not for sissies!" At age 77 I can attest that she was correct!
Grand Advice
“Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud,
but humility comes before honor.”
(Proverbs
18:12)
My mom used to use some interesting terms and expressions when describing
humanity. One of her favorites was “fool hardy” when someone did something out
of line. Another was that “It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than
to speak out and remove all doubt.” Somehow, when we are proud in
the context of today’s text, we are not paying attention. When we kid ourselves
with false pride, it helps us grow to have an appreciation for the realities of
life.
We are often overconfident. It seems that the younger we are the more likely we
are to suffer from “cockiness”. Somehow that is God’s way of teaching us. We
constantly have to monitor our pride and confidence. The elders of society have
knowledge and experience but are not always correct. Technology and society are
changing faster than fifty years ago. Therefore many of the rules of life have
changed.
In our spiritual lives,
the rules have not and will not change. We need to take inventory of our pride
and be real. The ethics, love and traditions taught to us by Christ will endure
regardless of technology changes and cash flows. We need to hold up our values
to serve the Lord in an ever changing world.
Thought for Today: Every day is the first day of the rest of
our lives. The mistakes and experiences of our past are nothing more than
learning experiences and enable us to move forward with confidence. Today let
us focus on being humble and dealing with the realities of our individual
worlds.
Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father, today we give thanks for the
lessons we have learned and the great loves that we have. Through all that
Jesus taught us and what we learned from the past, thank you for putting it
before us.
Amen