Humility

Gozz

Words of Wisdom on Humility

Forgiving. Some people have difficulty saying, “I’m sorry. I made a mistake. You were right.” Why? Too much pride!

French writer Voltaire described humility as “the modesty of the soul . . . the antidote to pride.” Yes, humility is lowliness of mind. A humble person is modest in spirit, not proud. He is deeply respectful and courteous.

How do you react when a suggestion comes from a younger person or from a woman? If you are humble, you will at least consider it. If you are proud, you will resent it or reject it out of hand.

mommy

Gozz,
I am sorry! You are right I am wrong! How could I not see it? I promise to NEVER do it again.
Btw what did I do?
Sorry just kiddin I must have been bitten by the Larc bug:)
wendy

empty

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Edited by - empty on 31 January 2001 12:0:4

larc

This is lurking larc just hangin out.

Now, Voltaire was a heavy duty kind of guy and he had very smart wife, so he can't be all bad. Now, to me humility and correct me if I'm wrong, so I can cowl in your presence, in abject fear, and grovel in your presence ... ooops ... I went too far into the humility thing. I think humility is being able to say I was wrong and you were right. Hey, gang what do you think?

TR

Humility is a good thing, when appropriate. Nothing is worse than being around a "know-it-all" type of person. That's the way it is, and you all can go suck eggs, because I know I'm right.

TR

trevor

Hi GOZZ,

In answer to your question - I always consider suggestions made by women - though I don't get quite so many nowdays!

trevor

amicus

Humility.
Terms like this have much more meaning when I make personal applications.
To me humility is forcing myself to admit, at times, that I'll encounter people who know a little more that I might (even with my vastly superior education-major in Awake!, minor in Watchtower, phd in Kingdom songs) about some subjects.

TR

Amicus,

I majored in substituting kms parts when there were no-shows. I minored in trying not to fall asleep during the meetings.

TR

Seven

Gozz, With your permission I'd like to add these thoughts on humility from the Pirke Avot: Make God's will your will, so that God may make your will his will; make your will nothing before God's will, so that God will make the will of others nothing before your will.And she sells seashells down by the seashore. I'm not attempting to ruin this thread, but thought the following to be worth sharing:

Humility requires that you empty your mind of your own needs, your own desires, your own wants, and focus on what God wants. It requries that you shut out the noise of life, and focus on the tranquility inside.

Well, I've got the emptying of the mind part down.

Why should I be humble? After all, we say, look at where I have arrived in life. I have risen in my profession; I have a good family; I make plenty of money; I am smart, maybe even moreso than the next woman. Certainly my achievements enable me to be proud of what I have accomplished. I don't have to be obnoxious about it, lord it over the next guy. But certainly I should be proud of all that I have done, right? But the religious person considers him/herself created in God's image. If so, our abilities belong to God. If our abilities are God given, then to be successful is no more than to fulfill the potential God planted within us. Who would brag about a gift given to you? Only the Creator or Giver of the gift has the right to brag. The recipient should only be grateful, and if he can't express his gratitude he should say nothing at all. Instead of pride, we should cultivate our sense of gratitude to God for all that God provided to us. To have fulfilled a promise to God by being who God created us to be is not to engender pride, but to feel gratitude that the promise is now fulfilled.

I'll bet I lost half the people after the fourth "will." It is God's intention that we live a life of humility. Get over ourselves-we are insignificant. Pride is irrelevant. Chapter 1 in the course Humility 101 starts here.

The humble person is humble in the way she presents herself, in enduring insults, in disdaining exercising authority over others and shunning applause, and in honoring everyone. Anger is opposite of humility because it places the angry person in a position of superiority over the recipient of anger.

Almost done.

Egotism prevents us from allowing God inside ourselves. Pride makes it impossible to fulfill our function in the world. As God's creatures we are here to fulfill the mission of the Creator. But if the Creator cannot speak to you, she cannot speak through you either. Humility opens the gateway to God's garden, in which is hidden the true mission of our lives. Humility is necessary to discover the divine messages addressed to us daily, the little notes given to us from unsuspecting people and places in our lives. Without humility we will never recognize those messages for what they are: directives from God.

Okay, so it's a spiritual thing. We're not the only ones on this rock with wants and desires. In being humble we'll find the God within and our true selves in God.

Seven

quotes from Beth Torah, Humility: Struggling Not To Rebel Against God.
Pirke Avot.

Edited by - SevenofNine on 31 January 2001 18:4:37

larc

Well,

I don't have any really nice quotes like seven gave us, but here's how I see it. I think pride and humility are a matter of degree. I don't want to be so humble that people or oganizations run over me and I don't want to be proud to the point of araggance. (so?). I think pride is valuable when used to give you the strength to overcome obstacles and accomplish something, as long as you don't forget all those that helped you along the way. That's my humble, but proud opinion.

Humility

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