The "P" Word

For nearly three decades, I suffered from a bad case of “attention-itis;” a craving for praise and recognition. See, my mom—the ultimate stage mother—put me in modeling when I was 4 years old and musical theatre at age 11. I loved it, and became very accustomed to lots of applause.

But I never got tall enough for adult modeling, and soon discovered my theatrical skills had been greatly over-exaggerated by my loving family and friends! Let me put it this way—it was “don’t call us, we’ll call you” from many professional directors. This got me searching for other careers that might allow similar limelight, trying everything from motivational speaking to writing cheap romance novels. The only one that got turned on was me.

By this time my involvement in church had started, and I thought, “I’ll write about God stuff. What could be wrong with that?” But soon it gave me daydreams of accepting some writing award in front of a huge audience, or making some profound Biblical point that—poof—would move every Christian into political action.

Then one day, I had to eat a big scoop of humble pie. Take it from me—crow does not taste good. A church leader pointed out that I only volunteered for things that put me in some kind of limelight. Boy, did he nail it. The ugly “P” word—PRIDE—was alive and well in me.

I began studying the Bible for what God says about pride and humility. I learned He often doesn't choose people who WANT to be used in great capacities because their pride will get in the way of the task, and He can’t use that. As Christians, we’re supposed to give Him the glory for everything we do!

The honorable thing is to give God our “attention-itis.” Then we might just get a little credit, and achieve a better greatness in the long run.

(Based on Proverbs 29:23 and James 4:10)