Proverbs 11-When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post.

Sometimes being humble comes at a price, doesn't it? Can any of you identify with that? I know I can. 

Proverbs 11:2 hits home for me, because I had to learn it the hard way and unfortunately I have too many examples to prove it. But I will share just one. Proverbs 11:2 says, "when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom."

The hard-learned lesson that has played a part in me learning humility was a time when I ran my mouth one too many times. It happened years ago and was at an event that people were looking forward to. I was on the planning committee and I was due to speak a few words of inspiration by reciting a poem I wrote. Let me just say this: that was the last poem I wrote without having someone else read it before I recited it publicly. I know some poets don't do that, but sometimes it's wise to have another trusted eye on our writing just to ensure it is the right tone for any given event. In my case the poem wasn't the right one. It had some words in it (not vulgarity or anything like that), but just inappropriate words that were over the top. I had taken it too far really, and people were offended by it. The embarrassment I felt that lasted a few seconds seemed like it was hours. At any rate, I eventually recovered from that ordeal and learned a valuable lesson of not letting pride get the best of me. There was no doubt that pride was the culprit, because I thought I had things all figured out, I didn't run anything by anyone, and I fell flat on my prideful face. That was a hard lesson of learning about pride, disgrace, and humility.

My point in this message is not to let pride get the best of you like it did with me. We have to learn from the people who came before us, seek out trusted advice, be respectful of that advice, and follow it. That's humility and humility is better than pride any day.