Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Proverbs 3:7
fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
Humans sure are a self-centered bunch and never more so than in our current culture. We brag about everything we accomplish; from getting a job promotion to just simply getting out of bed and all of it posted on our favorite social media! Sadly, the age of the selfie and rampant self-idol worship isn’t going away anytime soon.
I recently shopped for a birthday card for my granddaughter and was shocked not just by the prices of greeting cards these days, but also by the narcissistic messages entrenched on every card!
“You can do anything! All you need is right inside you!”
“Go after your dreams because incredible you can do anything!”
“It’s all You! No one can stop you from being you!”
Now, I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t encourage our children to do their best and affirm them when they succeed. But, when we do this to the extreme and without any discussion of God and His gifting our children with skill sets and abilities, then we are creating a generation of humans who have been trained to believe that they are their own god and will trample anyone who gets in their way of their perceived success. Or they will just give up on life when doing their best falls short of someone else outdoing them with their own version of best. Either way, these generations are lost, lonely and in captivity to their own narcissistic obsessions.
But we can use godly wisdom to train up our children and grandchildren to understand that true success comes from submitting ourselves to God and then putting others before ourselves.
Wisdom sifts through the many temptations to promote ourselves at the expense of diminishing Christ.
Wisdom keeps us centered on Christ and the knowledge that our self-worth is totally immersed in Him and through Him.
Wisdom reminds us that without Christ the only thing we have left is ‘self’ and the feeble attempts of ‘self’ to etch out a life worth living.
Wisdom challenges us to show forth Christ through love-centered humility toward one another; our neighbors and even our enemies.
Wisdom warns us to flee the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
Wisdom calls us to fear the LORD; Jehovah God!
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways!
Romans 11:33
31 Days in Proverbs 