Trying To Impress?

Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth—
    a stranger, not your own lips.

Proverbs 27:2 

 

We all know someone who simply cannot carry on any sort of conversation without bragging about themselves.  No matter how the conversation begins, it always seems to come back to their accomplishments or their talents or their vacations or them.  Why do we seem to have a need to brag?  Could it be that we believe that if we don't share all about us no one else will?  

 

I knew a pastor, a while back, who just had to tell about all the mission trips he had led, how many articles he had published, the size of his farm....as a matter of fact, there wasn't a single thing he wouldn't brag about.  He wouldn't even allow his wife to call him by name, she had to refer to him as "Pastor."  In my mind, I could hear that old country song, "O Lord it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way..."

 

When we brag about ourselves, are we really impressing anyone? We all have talents and gifts and accomplishments worth noticing and sharing, don't we?  However, the fastest way to turn people into glazed over zombies is to brag on ourselves.  Here's an option well worth investigating...try bragging about someone else!