“Humility is the most difficult to fall virtues to achieve; nothing dies harder than the desire to think well of oneself.” -T.S. Eliot

“The only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ.” -F.B. Meyer

“Humility is the proper estimate of oneself.” -Charles Spurgeon

Teaching our boys to be humble is difficult in our society. Our society continually inflates the egos of athletes, actors and others. No wonder our culture has a hard time being humble. We live in the wealthiest country in the world and most often have everything we think we need. Although success in itself is not a bad thing, when we begin to think of ourselves better than we should it can become a downfall. If we want to teach and model humility to our boys, we must know what it means to be a Humble Hero and how to model that for them. A scriptural look at humility gives us good insight into the DNA of a Humble Hero.

A Humble Hero is teachable. Proverbs 9:8–9 says, “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.” A Humble Hero is also God-reliant. We must put our complete trust in Christ and realize that our reliance upon Him will decrease our reliance upon ourselves. A Humble Hero also has a good reputation. Proverbs 29:23 says, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.”

Do your boys see you being a Humble Hero? Modeling it for them will first require you to take a thorough evaluation of your life. Are you more concerned about your popularity than your character? Do you think you know it all or are you teachable? Are you putting your trust in Christ or something that you can control?

Don’t cast a vision for something that you are not willing to model yourself.

Father God, may we all strive to be humble servants of you. May we glorify you daily by putting you first in our lives. Give us the wisdom to live a life of humility for you. Amen.