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Naughty or Haughty

We don't use the word naughty very often, but when we do, we are usually thinking of one of the two lists found in the North Pole. "He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he's gonna find out who's naughty and nice."

We associate the word with disobedience, or the opposite of being nice. But naughty actually derives from the Old English naught, which means zero, or having no value. The King James uses that word in Proverbs 6:12: "A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth." The ESV says worthless rather than naughty. 

A person who is naught-y is a worthless person, someone who contributes nothing because he is living in sin.  

On the other end of the spectrum, just a few verses later, is the haughty person. Verse 16 says there are seven things the Lord hates, and the first one on the list is haughty eyes, which is an old way of referring to pride and arrogance, someone who never drops his gaze, but turns his nose up in the air because he believes he is better than everyone else.  

God hates pride, and so should we. Pride takes our eyes off of Him and keeps them on ourselves. But in an effort to eschew pride some allow the pendulum to swing too far in the opposite direction. They malign themselves, saying things like, "I'm just a big screw up, so don't count on me to do anything."

This faux humility can be just as disastrous as pride; God doesn't work through the proud, but neither does He work through the fake humble. 

When we work so hard to not look haughty, we end up naughty, making ourselves out to be worthless. If we say we are worthless over and over, we will become worthless, never trusting ourselves to do anything at all. 

The key is to have an accurate self-assessment. Recognizing that you have weaknesses is good; it forces you to rely on other people, and on the God who is proven strong in our weakness. Recognize that you have strength and abilities; those are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Pretending you don't have any neutralizes what the Spirit wants to do through you. 

Don't be naughty or haughty. Just be the you Jesus has made you into.

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