One-Upping

Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? (1 Corinthians 5:6 NIV)

Have you ever known anyone who always had to "one up" everyone else? If you talked about the fish you caught, he caught a bigger one. If you talked about being in labor for 20 hours, she was in labor for 40. If you pulled a 4.0 GPA in college.. Well... He'll tell you he tested out of college and they just gave him a degree. We all know someone like this... And perhaps we are even like this ourselves from time to time.

The thing is, when we are one-upped in our stories, we are rarely impressed with that person. We are only annoyed. They stole our thunder. They made our accomplishment look small. They tried to make themselves look good, but only succeeded in making themselves look petty. So why do we ever do that?

We crave recognition. We want people to admire us. But bragging always backfires. No one admires a braggart. And the only recognition the habitual braggart gets is eye rolls as he approaches a group in conversation.

Paradoxically, the way to win admiration is by being humble. When we live our lives the way we hshould, people are naturally drawn to us and even want to imitate us. That is what being yeast is all about. Instead of trying to be better than someone else, we merely do our OWN best and encourage others to be their best. Sometimes we will get the biggest fish and sometimes someone else will. But the point is, the fish are being caught and we should be happy for every person's success, big or small.

We're all in this life together and working together we make much better yeast than when we try to get all the recognition for ourselves.

Father,
Help us to remain humble...and silent...even when we have a "better" story. Help us to take more joy in recognizing others rather than craving recognition for ourselves. Amen.

Joys:"catching up" with someone I haven't seen in a while; very productive day at work; Donna"s great news