What are you proud of? Maybe you’ve made it through rigorous schooling or run a marathon or lost a bunch of weight or you have a great family or home or job . . . the list could go on and on. It’s wonderful to thank God for the gifts and abilities he’s given us. We can be “proud” of those things. But when those things make us think we’re better than someone else or even that somehow those things make us look better in God’s eyes, then that becomes the sin of pride. It’s a mindset that we’ve all fallen prey to.

So what can you be proud of? You can be proud of being humble. Huh? That may seem like a contradiction, but humility leads me to see myself for the selfish person I am, and it leads me to see even more clearly the Savior whom I have in Jesus. C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.” A truly humble person will boast in only one thing because there is only one person to think of: Jesus. First Corinthians 1:31 says, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” Jesus is my heart’s true boast! Take the world, but give me Jesus!

Today, thank God for your gifts and abilities and then ask him to help you use them to show your pride in Jesus to everyone you see.