Pride comes before the fall, right? I’m here to tell you that it also comes after the fall.
A few weeks ago, I appeared for my first day as Recess Duty Mom and came equipped with comfortable clothes, running shoes, and my game face. There were four of us strategically positioned at the soccer field, stick playing area, and playground. That day, the captain asked me to go to the stick area.
While keeping an attentive eye on children who had transformed their sticks into medieval swords, a soccer ball came flying my way about 100 yards off course, through the bleachers, over the creek bed. As a 40-pound, red-faced child chased it I thought, “I’m not going to just watch him go after it. I am Cool Mom. I know how to kick a soccer ball!”
I ran. I planted my left foot to prepare to kick with my right. But my foot twisted in a hole propelling me in an involuntary somersault. For the next half a second the following thoughts ran through my mind: How in the world did this happen? I am so embarrassed! Are my daughters seeing this? Are they embarrassed too? Oh, man, this is going to hurt. Maybe I can catch my fall. Nope, can’t. The grass looks upside down. What’s that rocky stuff going past my face? This kid is going to laugh at me and tell my kids and their friends. I’m so embarrassed. Ouch! That hurt worse than I thought!
Letting myself back into the school with my recess-mom key, I headed toward the school nurse, another mom with a toolbox full of Band-aids and alcohol swabs that would clean up my bloody hands and knees. It wasn’t as if there was no pride left; it had simply been crushed on the rocks of the schoolyard for the time being. Pride never completely goes away. What can we do about it?
Pride needs to be exposed! It burrows deep as we go about our lives. When left in the corners of our little worlds, say, in front of the computer screen, buried in books, shopping, or whatever happens to be distracting us, pride digs deep without our even knowing it.
God needs to shine his light into our lives. John 1: 4-5 says “In him (Christ) was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” It is not a question of if God will expose our pride but when. Sometimes it happens during moments of stillness. Sometimes it happens at recess duty. But we can be glad when it does! Why? If I spend my life trying to be “Cool Mom,” I will fail. Guaranteed. On the other hand, if I spend my life remembering that my value is found not in how esteemed I am in my children’s friends’ eyes but in the eyes of my maker and my God, I find that in Christ I have my eternal approval (I John 1:9) guaranteed.
Questions to consider:
1. How are you trying to get approval from others
2. What can you do today to let God expose your pride?
3. What freedom does 1 John 1:9 give us?
Bio about Kelli
https://thedrinkingrock.com/2013/10/16/nothing-quite-says-fall-like-tripping-in-a-divot/