Does humility mean we let people laugh at us?
This thought went through my mind as I listened to the person next to me at the Driver's License Division mockingly snicker after I asked Kel how to add someone to my contact's list. She leaned over to her companion and they both joined in a chuckle.
I thought, "Maybe they aren't laughing at me," and shrugged it off.
However, moments later, when I did something else, the same derisive chuckling erupted and they whispered to each other, laughing again. Hmmmm...maybe it was my pathetic appearance: toilet paper roll for tissues for my never-ending stream of allergies, swollen eyes, and home-body clothes. Maybe it was one of those things...or maybe it was them.
I thought on this as I watched them approach the counter when their number was called. I wondered if they live in fear that other might laugh at them due to small things that they do, just as they had done to me. It made me reflect on where I was at and why, helping my son despite my allergic condition, doing what I could do to be the mother I needed to be...doing the right thing.
No, the problem wasn't mine, but the hurt could have been. As I thought about humility and this incident, I was reminded of the people of Ammon in the Book of Mormon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehis who bowed in the face of not just persecution but death at the hands of their fellow human beings. While calmly not responding to the derision of another is not the same as submitting my life to death, it was good practice to submit to God's will and let His justice act...if action was needed.
I am so quick to anger, so quick to frustration, so quick to resentment and bitterness. This small incidence was a great opportunity to feel the "blade of mockery" slide past, as, for once, I humbly sought God's will instead of the fiery, fight-back ways of the natural man. For once, I think I caught a glimpse of truly what my husband means when he says, "what other say or do to you just doesn't matter, sweetie."
It can be true, with humility. I am glad that humility is a gift I can ask for and it won't just come if I am good enough for it, because that just might never happen :).
This thought went through my mind as I listened to the person next to me at the Driver's License Division mockingly snicker after I asked Kel how to add someone to my contact's list. She leaned over to her companion and they both joined in a chuckle.
I thought, "Maybe they aren't laughing at me," and shrugged it off.
However, moments later, when I did something else, the same derisive chuckling erupted and they whispered to each other, laughing again. Hmmmm...maybe it was my pathetic appearance: toilet paper roll for tissues for my never-ending stream of allergies, swollen eyes, and home-body clothes. Maybe it was one of those things...or maybe it was them.
I thought on this as I watched them approach the counter when their number was called. I wondered if they live in fear that other might laugh at them due to small things that they do, just as they had done to me. It made me reflect on where I was at and why, helping my son despite my allergic condition, doing what I could do to be the mother I needed to be...doing the right thing.
No, the problem wasn't mine, but the hurt could have been. As I thought about humility and this incident, I was reminded of the people of Ammon in the Book of Mormon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehis who bowed in the face of not just persecution but death at the hands of their fellow human beings. While calmly not responding to the derision of another is not the same as submitting my life to death, it was good practice to submit to God's will and let His justice act...if action was needed.
I am so quick to anger, so quick to frustration, so quick to resentment and bitterness. This small incidence was a great opportunity to feel the "blade of mockery" slide past, as, for once, I humbly sought God's will instead of the fiery, fight-back ways of the natural man. For once, I think I caught a glimpse of truly what my husband means when he says, "what other say or do to you just doesn't matter, sweetie."
It can be true, with humility. I am glad that humility is a gift I can ask for and it won't just come if I am good enough for it, because that just might never happen :).
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