“If you’ve found honey, eat just enough for you, lest you’ve your fill of it and vomit it. Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.” – Proverbs 25:16-17
For several weeks, ever since I discovered that my friend Sarah Graham was starting a food business selling each sweet and savory snacks, I even have been bugging her (literally) to make me some sesame beef jerky. It’s been an ongoing request that several other people have began joining me. This week, she surprised us by bringing a tray of it to share with our mid-week Bible study. We attacked that tray just like the carnivores we’re, but I noticed something interesting on the very end of the night. We all loved the meat jerky she made, but there was one piece left and nobody desired to be the one to take it regardless that we were all eyeing it up. In a special way that might need been easy to overlook, I noticed that was an indication of humility on the a part of the group. We were putting each other above ourselves.
Solomon gives an identical example when he speaks of honey. His counsel was to avoid being gluttonous once you find it. Eat just enough for yourself and do not eat beyond that. Leave the following portion for another person. Don’t make yourself sick through overconsumption because that is a visual demonstration of a self-centered mindset and a scarcity of humility.
I feel he also demonstrates the importance of humility on the subject of the respect we show for an additional person’s time. Solomon tells us to avoid consistently lingering at your neighbor’s house or he’ll get sick of you.
When I used to be a child, my grandmother’s sister lived along with her. In the summer, we might spend plenty of time sitting on their front porch throughout the evenings. Their block consisted of dozens of row homes, and considered one of their neighbors used to attend for them to be out so she could come down and talk. That was all wonderful, but she never appeared to know when to go away, so eventually either my aunt or my grandmother would walk contained in the house and call out to the opposite by saying something like, “The baby is crying, are you able to help?” I at all times got a kick out of seeing what form of excuse they might eventually provide you with in an effort to end the conversation.
Failing to respect the time or boundaries of one other person is a problem of humility that is value wrestling with. We’re called to place others before ourselves, not approach life like we’re crucial person within the neighborhood.
Biblical humility does not imply you think that poorly of yourself. It means you start to see yourself exactly as you’re in light of who God is. It involves a recognition of the mercy you have been shown by Jesus when He selected to serve you and lift you up at His expense.
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward each other, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the standard.” (1 Peter 5:5)
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but additionally to the interests of others. Have this mind amongst yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 2:3-5
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Suwaree Tangbovornpichet
