TODAY IS…

a fine day to take your medicine.

“…follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased.”  Proverbs 6:3 NLT

While these verses may pertain to avoiding overextending ourselves financially, the key lesson to be learned is to not let our pride get in the way of doing what is right.

People often become confused when talking about pride.

It is important to take pride in the work that we do; to take pride in our appearance; to take pride in the maintenance and upkeep of our vehicles and our homes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with solving a difficult problem or completing a task and stepping back and basking in the glow of that accomplishment, particularly when the accomplishment is one of service to God or to those around us, and as long as we give God the glory and acknowledge that it is He who provides us with the talent and ability to do everything we do.

But pride that is the result of a self-righteous or arrogant attitude is destructive and keeps us separated from people around us and from God as well.

There was once a jingle that contained the words, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” Many of us have experienced the bitter, unpleasant taste involved with the taking of certain types of medicine. Unfortunately, in many cases, this unpleasantness must be endured in order to help us heal.

Swallowing our pride can be a much more difficult challenge to some of us than taking the worst tasting medicine that we can imagine, but if our pride has created discord or unhappiness in our relationships, our homes, with our friends, or with those we work or worship with, we must do whatever it takes to swallow it in order to help the situation heal.

“Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do.” (Proverbs 6:4 NLT).

Waiting will not improve the situation or make it easier. Adding stubbornness to the arrogance and self-righteousness can, in no way, help the situation. It can – and will – only make it worse.

Consider the following verse from Proverbs: “To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.” (Proverbs 8:3 NIV).

Our pride is bunched together with some pretty shady company, so it cannot be a good thing.

No matter how much sugar we need to add, we need to take our medicine today and swallow our pride.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson