The British scholar and writer Bonamy Dobree said, “It is difficult to be humble. Even if you aim at humility, there is no guarantee that when you have attained that state you will not be proud of the feat.”
The Bible tells us that the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).
Tom Tozer and Bill Black pose for a portrait Monday, March 28, 2016 at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Yet humility is extremely difficult to achieve for most of us. It smacks of weakness. It feels like we’re placing ourselves on a lower level than others. If we’re proud of who we are and what we have accomplished, how do we remain humble?
Dad and Mom, how do you teach your teenager humility? The teen years may be the most difficult period in a child’s life to understand and practice humility. After all, most young people who are in their teens are already battling the pangs of inferiority and self-consciousness. Those things come with the territory. And now we’re supposed to point out the virtue of being humble.
First of all, for what’s it’s worth coming from two dads who have lived through those teen years with their sons and daughters and survived to write about it, we do not believe that the opposite of humility is necessarily conceit, having an exaggerated opinion of oneself. We think a person can be proud of his or her achievements without rubbing that pride in the faces of friends and peers. After all, Dad and Mom, what you need to point out to your children is the fact that no one accomplishes great things without the help and encouragement of others, whether it be friends, parents, teachers or an influential role model.