Humility

In addition to faith and gratitude, the third characteristic that my wife and I concluded most important to teach our children was humility. The first sin ever committed was pride, which is thinking more of oneself than one should. The late Thomas Merton once wrote, "A humble man can do great things with an uncommon perfection because he is no longer concerned about incidentals, like his own interests and his own reputation, and therefore he no longer needs to waste his efforts in defending them. For a humble man is not afraid of failure. In fact, he is not afraid of anything, even of himself, since perfect humility implies perfect confidence in the power of God before Whom no other power has any meaning and for Whom there is no such thing as an obstacle. Humility is the surest sign of strength."
In the Old Testament book of Daniel, we read of the plight of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar who went from I, to me, to my, to MOO. In Daniel 4, we see King Nebuchadnezzar resisting the will of the God of the Bible to the point of being humbled to the point of behaving like a cow grazing on the grass of the land. This is not the first time God has been known to bring a man down a notch to get his attention. We can all attest to those moments when we have been blessed to be humbled. It is in those moments when we are staring square in the face our own brokenness that we see life most clearly.
The late Mike Yaconelli said it well when he said, “accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. ” Yaconelli's words ring true in our souls because we have all been at that place of brokenness causing us to cry our to the God of all mercy. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, the Apostle Paul wrote, "So that I would not become too proud of the wonderful things that were shown to me, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. This problem was a messenger from Satan, sent to beat me and keep me from being too proud". As with the Apostle Paul, it is sometimes necessary for the believer to experience brokenness, so that humility will find a safe haven in our souls.