Feelings that Prevent Humility

In Texas, Karla Faye Tucker was executed for a brutal murder. She expressed great humility toward the families involved and toward God, and received a statement of forgiveness and support from one of the children of the people she had murdered. Do you think her humility made her more likely to be forgiven, as opposed to if she had just issued a standard apology? Humility, along with many other virtues, has a tendency to lead to positive outcomes. Research has shown that people are more likely to forgive their offenders if the offender shows regret and admits their mistakes. While humility and regret are not the same thing, humility certainly helps a person to realize their mistakes and can lead to more meaningful apologies and forgiveness. 

Think about a time that you did not act humbly. Try to get back into how you felt around that period of your life, so you can remember vividly how you reacted to the situation. Which of these did you feel? 

• Pride: I felt the need to share my importance or the importance of my actions. 
• Superiority: I felt better than someone else. 
• Narcissism: I acted in my own self-interest. 
• Selfish Thoughts: I thought about myself and not about others. 
• Over-Confidence: I put too much stock into my own abilities. 
• Condescension: I put someone/something down. 
• Defensiveness: I played myself up in order to defend myself or feel as adequate as everyone else. 
• Indecency: I shared too much information about myself, my body, someone else, or something else. 
• False Modesty: I put myself down in order to hear others tell me how good or important I was. 
• Other: What were they? 

Think about your feelings when you realized that you could have acted differently. Write down one thing you will try to change next time you feel like you are in a situation to make a different choice.