I hope you and I never get into an argument. I’m pretty stubborn, and even when seeming to yield, I’m probably just pretending to accept your ideas. Inside my brain I know I’m right.

Well, isn’t it true that we all love to be right? We love to say, “I told you so.” We love to win arguments. There is something of an adrenaline rush to outgunning somebody else’s line of thought and points. And it’s way more fun to blame other people for what went wrong than to take any responsibility. It’s probably a good idea, though, to remember who is listening in on our conversations. It’s good to remember who can hear even our thoughts: “A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21:2). 

If that’s true (and it is), we need to work on our hearts. So how do we change? 1) We can choose to act more humbly, inspired by our humble Savior Jesus. We can assume that we don’t know everything and suppress our own egos. 2) We can listen first before flapping our own gums. We might learn something that way instead of revealing our own limits. 3) We can choose to find joy in praising someone else’s words instead of letting our insecurities demand all the attention.

I will if you will.