Cheap Trophies
This Week's Theme: Success and Significance
John Ashcroft
Monday, June 4, 2001
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Key Bible Verse: "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is goodexcept God alone" (Mark 10:18).
Bonus Reading:1 Corinthians 4:1-4
My houses are filled with plaques, honorary pictures and keys given to me while I was a governor and senator. But these are temporary acknowledgments of an office I held. You begin to learn that many institutions will use plaques and degrees as a way of getting you to their events. It's not necessarily to commend your performance; it's often about their need to get the press there for a good photo opportunity.
I'm not ungrateful for honorary degrees, but I want a balanced understanding of who I really am. I don't want to participate in some sort of delusion that I'm something I'm not. That's why I don't focus on what's written about me in the newspapers, either the too-good compliments or the too-bad disparaging comments. I don't want to measure my life by what people are saying about me.
My father drilled into me that genuine self-esteem is based on what God thinks of you, not how many stand in line to shake your hand or slap you on the back. I try to focus on what I might become in the future, not on what others are saying about me today.
John Ashcroft in Lessons from a Father to His Son Respond:
What kind of person am I working to become? Thought to Apply:
Success will go to my head unless I remember that it is God who accomplishes the work, and will make out with other means whenever He cuts me down to size.
Charles H. Spurgeon (English pastor)
Adapted from: Lessons from a Father to His Son (Nelson, 1998)
For your convenience, Lessons from a Father to His Son is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore. 1 of 1
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Lord, help me to align my goals with Your purposes for me.
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