There is a story about a woman who had spent years trying to persuade her self-absorbed boyfriend to change his ways. He talked almost exclusively about himself, rarely listened to anyone else, and seemed genuinely convinced that the world revolved around him.

One day on a date they came across an old-fashioned fortune-telling scale. He stepped on, dropped in a coin, and out came a card. He read it aloud with barely concealed satisfaction: "You are a born leader, with superior intelligence, quick wit, and a charming manner. You have a magnetic personality and are attractive to the opposite sex."

"Read that!" he said to his girlfriend.

She read it. Then she turned the card over and replied, "Yes, honey. And it has your weight wrong too."

A little humility can go a long way.

What strikes me about humility is that it is not about thinking less of yourself — it is about thinking of yourself less. It creates space. Space to actually hear what someone else is saying. Space to be surprised, corrected, changed. Space for a relationship to become something real rather than just a mirror.

James puts it simply: "Be quick to listen, slow to speak." (James 1:19)

And Peter goes further: "Clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:5-6)

Clothe yourselves with humility. It's a beautiful image — as if humility is something we put on each morning, deliberately, before we walk out into our relationships and our day.

What might change today if you wore it?

Prayer: Loving God, we all want relationships that flourish and give life. And we know that flourishing cannot happen when we are at the center of everything. Help us to clothe ourselves in humility — to listen more than we speak, to seek to understand before we seek to be understood. Grant us caring, open hearts. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

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