I think we’ve all had those moments where we do something embarrassing or something embarrassing happens to us. We might feel completely humiliated and want to hide. Someone might make a comment about how you’ve now been humbled. Yet, are you really feeling humble, or are you just feeling like you’ve been humiliated?
Understanding What It Means to be Humble
The Topical Guide in the scriptures connects words such as meek, submissiveness, and teachable to the word humble. For me, the big one that stands out is “teachable.” When we are humble, we are willing to learn. We don’t think we have all the answers or like we can’t learn from someone else. When I think of someone who’s humble, I think of someone who’s willing to turn to Heavenly Father or others for help. They aren’t prideful, trying to do things on their own. They recognize their own strengths and weaknesses.
What Does It Mean to Be Humiliated?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary uses words such as ashamed or embarrassed to describe humiliation. It also talks about looking down on someone. When I think of these words and phrases, pride comes to mind. When we feel humiliated, pride is often involved. Often, we feel this way because people realize we aren’t perfect, that we make mistakes, or that we need help with something we feel we should be able to do on our own. This preoccupation with perfection can lead us to feel embarrassed or humiliated when we fall short of our goals.
Can’t Being Humiliated Lead to Being Humble?
Humble and humiliation start with the same three letters. Humility and humiliation seem to be even more closely related. If you checked the etymology of both words, you would probably find that they are related somehow.
Being embarrassed or humiliated can then lead to you humbling yourself. Through that embarrassment, you may realize you can’t do everything on your own. You may end up becoming humble and turning to Heavenly Father and others for help. One example that comes to mind for me is Alma 32. The poor Zoramites have been thrown out of their place of worship. They feel like they can’t worship God. They are angry, hurt, and embarrassed that they are in this position. Yet, their circumstances have also led them to be humble enough to accept the gospel message.
What Can We Learn From This?
There will be times in life when you’ll be knocked down. It might feel unfair or mean. It might feel like you’re being targeted, hated, or mistreated. You can choose to be humiliated by the circumstances and move forward feeling prideful and embarrassed, or you can choose to allow your circumstances to humble you. If you let them humble you, you’ll then turn to Heavenly Father and go forward in faith. Ultimately, you’ll realize moving forward in faith will bring much greater happiness than allowing your humiliation to bring you down.
