Humility

Humility.  I think it's key to any relationship.  Of course there's love and commitment and all that good stuff...but humility seems, to my thinking, to be a very important virtue.

When I'm humble, I have the realization that I don't necessarily deserve the good things that come to me.  I have done nothing magnanimous or with complete altruism.  Humility is the recognition of grace at work and present in my life.

While some people consider it an unhealthy state of mind, perhaps because they believe they deserve all the great things they are experiencing or getting from life, I don't think there is any negative about a good dose of humility.  It's grace that brings us to where we are, not the fact  that we may "deserve" something.

I think it's so important, vital to relationships, because it keeps me real and it keeps me grateful for the Person I'm with.  I can never take him for granted or think that I can do better than him, because such feelings lead to an underlying sense of "I don't need you" or "I can do better". 

Maybe sometimes we could be with someone different, but not necessarily better.  When we think we can do "better", we begin even subconsciously to take the person we're with for granted.  Feelings of resentment can grow and fester from there, as we consider the way they should treat us, at least to our thinking.  "He doesn't get me gifts!" "He never takes me out!"  "He doesn't satisfy my needs!" 

My prayer should be:

Lord, keep me humble.  Let me not consider myself greater or better than others.  Keep me diminished, grateful and content with all I have.  Amen.

What I do have is a wonderful boyfriend.  We get each other.  He understands the feelings and meanings behind my words, even my texts.  I humbly consider all my mistakes I have made, the poor ways that I have treated him and I am once again reminded of grace--grace that we do not owe but that is so freely given to us.  We need to give it as much as we receive.

~Peace