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Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24).

This verse was in my devotional prayer book and I read it Thursday morning as I prepared for my first day at the Proverbs31 Ministries conference I am attending (for Christian speakers, writers, and ministry leaders).  There are over 730 women in attendance here!  Each of them has a dream – some big, some small.  And at one of the sessions, the speaker, Whitney Capps, was talking about what it is like to get here and meet these other ladies:

1. First you think, Wow – how amazing – all these other women – like me! They do exactly what I do! 🙂
2. Then you think, Uh oh, all these other women, like me; they do exactly what I do. 🙁

See, everyone here is learning how to get a book published, improve their blog, market their ministry, or become better speakers.  The women bringing a book proposal are, in essence, competing with one another.  In a worldly sense, all of us here are competing with one another.  Thankfully, you don’t get the feeling of competition you might get with a bunch of men (sorry guys – you know it’s true).  Instead, what you get is lots of self-doubt and low self-esteem.

These feelings I know.  I am intimately acquainted with them.  It seems like people tend to one type of pride or the other.  You can see pride in haughtiness and overconfidence and self-absorption.  Or you can see pride in someone who is entirely consumed with their own flaws – constantly thinking about their shortcomings, to the exclusion of anything else.  Either side of pride takes our eyes off of Jesus and what He has done for us.  When we constantly think of ourselves, we forget God.

So often, women fall into a low self-esteem type of pride.  I know that was me.  In part I was led there by a Southern standard of politeness.  It is nothing my mother ever taught me, but something I just picked up along the way.  For many women I know, it feels more socially acceptable to shy away from the spotlight and brush off a complement and avoid any display of confidence – because that might be “unbecoming”.  So we undermine ourselves in our thoughts first, then out loud.  We make self-deprecating remarks.  This is where so many of us are vulnerable.  If we knock ourselves down first…then maybe no one else will?

But as always, God has a better plan.  His plan?  His answer falls between the extremes of self-love and self-digust.  Die to self.  Take self out of the equation.  Keep your mind on honoring Him.  Keep your thoughts on how to promote Him.  This was the message I read in my devotional Thursday.  And each of the three speakers on that first day of the conference said essentially the same thing: work to make God famous, not yourself.  In that way, when one of us “succeeds” at honoring God, we all succeed.

I promised to tell you about A Woman Inspired last time, but I forgot.  No wonder, I was flying across every time zone in the Continental U.S. on Wednesday!  I am pushing it till Monday.  I am so excited to be able to share with you what God is doing through the devotion of a few godly women.

So please share with me in the comments: What is God asking you to lay down in order to die to self?  I’ll go first: I know it is my time…I have been struggling lately with time wasting and lack of discipline in this area.  Anybody else get distracted by email and FaceBook…can I get an Amen?  God is calling me to be intentional with all my time so I can enjoy Him better in my devotional time and serve Him better in my home and in my writing.

Tell me…What is God asking you to lay down in order to die to self?

Hugs!

Britta ~ I am justAgirl…just like you!