Are You Proving or Improving Yourself?

It is amazing what you can learn when your heart is seeking. Things can be gleaned from places you would never expect.

I watch a lot of old programs because I can’t stand the trash that is modern television. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Leave it to Beaver and Ward was giving Beaver one of those fatherly talks.

He told him that he would find it far more beneficial if instead of trying to prove himself to people, he spent his time trying to improve himself.

Man that spoke volumes to me. I spent the majority of my life trying to prove myself to people. All my childhood trying to prove myself to my father, then later on to instructors, then my command staff, my friends, my wife, my children, my bosses…

It was never ending and sometimes I think I was even trying to prove myself to me even.

The huge flaw in this is that nothing is ever enough. It rapidly becomes a goalless effort that is futility in action. Had I spent all that wasted time trying to improve myself, then every accomplishment, no matter how small or big, would have been a success.

In thinking of this, I realized that the scripture itself is all about improving ourselves — teaching us to be better today than yesterday. Guiding us through life and giving us a sense of accomplishment every time we see that we have claimed victory over something in our lives. Then in that comes an understanding that God is pleased not just with the victory, but also with the effort.

When we are just trying to prove ourselves, the effort always goes unrecognized and most often has no sense of victory. I feel this is one of those hidden deceptions of feeding the flesh because the effort of proving oneself is not actually for someone else but for ourselves every time. And the flesh is never satisfied!

I am thankful for ears to hear and eyes to see.

Kenneth Kellar
A Man Called by God to Teach & Disciple