becoming a humble pie

HUMILITY is a quality that is definately admirable. Perhaps it's my Asian Confucian upbringing passed down from several generations that I've got it engrained in me that humility is one of the most praiseworthy qualities in one's character. Even though I've lived in Australia most of my life, I was brought up with a lot of Asian Confucian principles. I learned from a young age that in my culture accepting compliments was a sign of pride, whereas refusing to accept compliments was a sign of humility. In an attempt to make myself humble, I would say 'oh it's nothing', 'I'm not that great, you know' instead of just being thankful and accepting a compliment for accomplishments and give myself a pat on the back. Sure, there were always things to improve on my parachute for the school parachute competition but I sure put in a lot of effort so I had done enough to earn some praise.

It wasn't until I got to uni that I realised that 'lowering' myself down in front of others wasn't making me humble but pulled me down on the inside as well. I slowly became to believe what I said (speech matters!) and not accept my accomplishments. This manifested into being strict on myself and striving to do better and better to outprove myself and become a somebody. This definately wasn't humility but bred signs of pride and perfectionism. Humility wasn't simply an outward act of not accepting praise but rather accepting it gracefully with thanks and most importantly saying to yourself 'I did a good job, though there are areas I can always improve'. Humility is not about letting someone step all over you. Humility is accepting that without God I am nothing, but because of God I have what I have and can do what I do. That's true humility. I guess you gotta learn to be humble pie.

But is there anything such as a humble pie? I believe all pies should scream
'I AM A SCRUMPTUOUS DELICIOUS PIE EAT ME NOW!'
teehee :)



Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. - Phillippians 2:3-4

For further reading, here's a great article about humility: So Humble (Boundless.org)

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