Love is not Pompous

To be pompous means, “To have or display a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance; feelings or assumption of one’s superiority toward others.” How often do we see, in many popular movies today, the character who is blatantly full of themselves and acts in a way that belittles or disregards others? If you are anything like me, they are the character that turns you off the most and causes a knee-jerk reaction of anticipating (with joy I may add) the moment where they fail, falter, or painfully learn their lesson.

Though many of us may never be as pompous as the characters we love to despise, it is important that we be mindful of the ways we can fall into arrogance in our own married life. Often it comes in little ways, such as fighting to win every argument because it’s hard for us to admit that we are ever wrong. It comes in the times when we feel impatient that our spouse is not advancing at the same pace as we are in areas of faith, education, politics, etc. In other words, we all are guilty at times of letting our pride get in the way of truly meeting each other where we are and walking through life’s challenges together with patience, understanding, and humility.

ACTION STEP: This week, root out the areas of your life where you feel superior to or are in competition with your spouse. Pray for God’s grace to help you be humbler in those areas of your life together. Look for ways to encourage your spouse in those areas.