Blessed are the meek

This is an excerpt of a post that Jack made at a discussion forum. The discussion involved Christians compromising in order to belong to a church. Does this compromise show humility or meekness? We think not.

Proverbs 20:11. Even a child is known by his deeds, by whether what he does is pure and right. _________________________________________________________________

...Indeed, true disciples love to be only God's children, and to behave as such. And they will not be dissuaded from doing so, no matter how many people find it uncomfortable. It's not about pride, it's about humility.

Someone I read years ago had a good comment on this question. In addressing the beatitude "blessed are the meek (PRAOTES)", he pointed out that PRAOTES signified the conditioning of someone who is thoroughly trained by his master---that he would obey faithfully in all circumstances. As I recall, he pointed out that it would not have been considered "meek" to fail to obey God in deference to the wishes of others, or to hesitate to obey because those around him were not also obeying.

My 3 year old James is very well behaved at home. He is well conditioned. But I have noticed that the bigger the crowd, the more difficult for him to maintain a sufficient focus on obeying his daddy. And so we work on that. When we're at big family gatherings or at the McDonald's Playland, it requires some extra coaching to keep him remembering that I'm still the center of his world, and that obedience to daddy is always a blessed and necessary thing. And the more of this training we do, the bigger crowd he can handle without casting off the reins. But no matter the circumstances, the moment he fails to listen and/or to obey, a crucial connection is broken and must be re-established as soon as possible.

As a result, he obeys his daddy even when the other kids are behaving poorly. And this is by no means "pride", but "humility" on his part. And it hurts his feelings to see other kids behaving poorly. He wants to help them do right. We asked him once how he could help other kids who were being bad and he said "next time I can bring a spatula and give him a spanking to help him be a good boy"! (This was not spoken in anger or vengeance, but in sincere belief that his own spankings have truly helped him to do what he wants to do---to be a good boy.)

If this is "pride", I wish everybody I knew were this prideful!