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Humility # 2 -- humility or humiliation?

One definition here says that a humility is the state of being modest or not of the oppinion that they are better than any one else. Very true. They also make a valid and important distinction between humility and humiliation.

See they define humiliation as the act of being made ashamed.

I always thought that everyone knew the difference between these concepts. But I was wrong, I had a friend of mine who told me once that he always thought humble and humility were two different things. He saw being humble as making yourself lower, while humility was feeling ashamed. In reality, humility is the state of being humble. They were the same thing, just two different forms of the same word with the same definition.

One could say that humiliation was forcing humility upon someone when they didn't want or seek after it. But can you humiliate a humble person? Hmm, would a humble person respond differently to an attempt to humiliate them? I think they would. I think a truly humble person would be very difficult to humiliate. And this is when humility transforms into meekness. When humility merges with inner strength they give birth to meekness.

Sometimes, humiliation can result in humility. Sometimes it can result in hatred. What makes the difference? Could it be in how we choose to respond to our situation? I think so.

When my elder brother, Jason, went to college; he prayed that God would teach him humility. Today, he strongly encourages people to pray that prayer, but not lightly. For God will answer it, and He may humble you by humiliating you. But it is so worth it, for the Bible says that before honor, comes humility.

Odd, isn't it? How our society tells us that if we want to succeed we must look out for #1. It's all about us, selfishness. We cultivate pride, and attitude in order to build ourselves up. But Scripture tells us of another way, a better way, a way that actually works. It tells us to NOT think highly of ourselves, to NOT promote ourselves above others and that is how we will be honored. It tells us that we cannot know God without humility, and knowing God is our deepest purpose in life. That tells us something about humility right there doesn't it.

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Comments

Awesome. Now, explain what humility is. ;)

I am getting to that, patience bro, patience.

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