My friend's words of "that's just pride" still resonate within me... 7 days later. Again, trying to have a healthy sense of self-confidence has proven difficult since I don't know what "healthy" is. Self-confidence in itself, is new to me. Don't get me wrong - a faux sense of self-confidence, brought about by deafening insecurities, is what i'm used to throughout most of my life, so...

The Bible reminds us often that we shouldn't think highly of ourselves than we should. The story of Haman is a great example - Haman hated Mordecai because he would not bow before him. And that hatred fueled him to the point where he not only looked for a way to destroy Mordecai, but all of Mordecai's people. [Esther 3] In the end, the King humiliated Haman by forcing him to respect & honor Mordecai, and ended up dying in the very gallows he designed for Mordecai & the Jews.

This is a great reminder that, only fools invest in the "me". Unfortunately, we live in a time when we're all too familiar with the saying:

What truly matters though, isn't what we think we deserve, or what we think of ourselves, but what God thinks of us. Jesus says that if we concern ourselves with the righteousness of our King, all that we'll need will be given to us [Matthew 6:33]

Mordecai, a good citizen of the kingdom of heaven, had saved the king of Persia from an attempt on his life. Because the smile of a king is like rain on a thirsty field [Proverbs 16:15], King Xerxes honored Haman’s enemy. Even worse, he ordered Haman to honor Mordecai in the exact way Haman had expected to be honored himself.

A fool, and their honor, soon come to grief. Spend some sincere time with God this week, asking Him the differences in how we each see ourselves, and the humility & ability to realign our own perspective, so it's more in line with God's.

And in the end, everything we have (possessions, health, family, profession, personality, appearances, gifts, ...), all come from God. Let's act wisely and not think too highly of ourselves.