A Healthy Dose of Humbleness
Today’s blog is written by Leslie Eichhorn, a team member of Nancy Hicks Live. Leslie is married to her college sweetheart, Christian, and is mom to 3 little ones who always keep life interesting! In her spare time, you can find her with her nose in a book or her eye behind a camera.
I am a recovering Truth Protector.
In Meant to Live, Nancy describes a Truth Protector (one of her four “camps” Christians tend to fall into) as someone who has all the answers, someone who is happy to teach the truth, because the truth is most important above all else.
When I started following Jesus as a college sophomore, I was desperate to understand the Gospel, this Good News that came in Jesus. Then, I had a burning desire in my heart to share that Good News with my friends and family who hadn’t heard it before.
It wasn’t long before I totally started twisting that message. I pointed out hypocrisy in the lives of other Christians and judged them for it, meanwhile, missing the extreme hypocrisy in my own life. I judged my non-Christian friends as not worthy of God’s goodness when I had just been in their shoes only months before!
So, what changed me? An extra-large dose of humility that came in the form of marriage and parenthood.
As Nancy states in the book, “Truth Protectors have a tendency to avoid the genuine ugliness of our sin…leads to lessening the range between God’s glory and our sin (page 90).”
Marriage to my husband in April 2006 very quickly showed me how incredibly “me-centered” I’d become. But I figured by the time our children came around 7 years later, that I’d worked all that selfishness out of me.
WRONG.
Not only were my children on the receiving end of my selfishness just like my husband was, now I had three little ones who would mimic my behaviors and my words. What a wake-up call! I noticed they would dwell on the naughty things their siblings would do while dismissing the times they also disobeyed me or their father. I try to gently remind them to worry about their own behavior first and let Mom (and God) worry about the rest.
“True humility is understanding that everything good that we do and have and are becoming is because of God. Every breath of that understanding points back to God in word and deed.” - Nancy Hicks, Meant to Live
Marriage and parenthood were the antidotes I needed to see myself as I really am and see God as He is. I have to choose every day to humble myself as He did.
Some practical things I try to work into my day-to-day life:
1. Give God the credit – not in an obnoxious, all-praise-to-Jesus-with-hands-in-the-air way. But I remind myself who the true source is of my successes, my failures, my blessings, and things that don’t seem like blessings – all from God.
2. Be more concerned about my own heart – when I pray, I try to focus on how I can improve my own behavior with God’s help, rather than the behavior of those around me. God will take care of that!
3. Point others to God – because, luckily, I’m not the only one who struggles with this! I’ve found joy in telling others my story and how God has graciously changed my heart.
Do I get this right every day? Of course not! God is very patient with me as I work through my Truth-Protecting ways. And this recovering Truth Protector is so incredibly grateful God was not content to let me wallow in my own hypocrisy.
~ Leslie
CALLING
Where are you “wallowing?” Is it in fear? Anxiety? Judgment of others? During these challenging times with schools and local businesses closed and constant media coverage of COVID-19, what can you release into God’s hands today?