I have been called arrogant once in a while. Well, ok…pretty often although I haven’t heard it directly! Here is the moral of the story…

Last night, Steph and I attended a Devotation with some students at UB. Despite being the oldest in the room, it was really interesting. The study is led by Alexander Tullis who is the minister at the Amherst Church of Christ. The whole idea behind this is for my own inner peace particularly in light of my heart attack a little more than two months ago.

Last night’s discussion was about Correction. Several verses were cited but the ones that stood out the most are:

“Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise.” – Proverbs 15:12
“If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise.” – Proverbs 15:31
“If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.” – Proverbs 15:32

As much as we tried to sit where we could see, and I could understand, everyone the conversations flew around the room faster than I could keep up. I am guessing I got about 75% of it. In general, people don’t like to be corrected or criticized. One student said it has to do with personal pride. There was a lot of other stuff being said that I didn’t catch. But that is ok.

Correction is about learning from it; giving yourself the opportunity and ability to do so. The grist of it all is that Correction makes you a better person but not better than the next person. And, being arrogant is about being better than the next person. I am taking a nice deep look at this Correction thing because arrogant is not something I want to be called anymore. I am getting off the mountain.

This Saturday is going the be my first race in my new age group (55-59). I don’t hope to be better than anyone who is already there but instead, I want to be better myself. I want to improve my own times. I know I will feel much better about myself knowing that I have make some sort of personal improvement. I won’t feel guilty knowing that someone thinks of me as an arrogant S.O.B. because I am not. I am gonna make that effort! That is all it’s about…feeling better. YEA!