Jill Pearson: Blog

I think since I was a little kid, I have found creative ways to boast about myself without sounding too self-indulgent. It has something to do with liking attention. I cringe when God calls me on it, like this Sunday, when the sermon was on boasting and Pastor Nate unwittingly used me as an example. Thank goodness he didn't come right out and say my name. My cheeks were burning enough as it was.

My husband is naturally humble. He doesn't even think of promoting himself. I have one daughter who takes after him. She spurns attention and is just quietly amazing in her little pursuits. My other daughter is happy to have the spotlight and point out her many attributes. She'll tell me what she plans to report to her friends upon their next meeting, and I often say, “Be careful, that sounds like bragging.” Perhaps I am saying, “Figure out how to say the same thing more creatively so it doesn't SOUND like bragging.”

I find myself caring all too much about what I'm going to post on my Facebook status. I manage to work boasting into the stories I tell at my concerts. I one-up people's stories with, “well, listen to what happened to me!” I don't think God never wants us to talk about ourselves. He's always about motives of the heart. He wants us to steadily analyze our actions that we may not conform to the pattern of the world. He wants us to deem others better than ourselves. He wants us to have a correct estimation of ourselves so that there is plenty of room for Him to dwell within us.

One of my words of the year is “VOICE.” I see that God is already teaching me something about how I use my voice. Not for boasting about myself. As I did a word study on it this morning, I realized that there are a multitude of things God hates for us to boast about: our own strength, our wealth, our purchases, our wisdom, our giving, our works, our human leaders, and our selfish ambitions. We are allowed to boast about our weaknesses, which is why I am boasting about my weakness of boasting. We can boast about the perseverance of others in times of trials and that we have not labored in vain. But really, it comes down to Psalm 44:8...

In God we make our boast all day long.