All of you should be of one mind.  Sympathize with each other.  Love each other as brothers and sisters.  Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.” I Peter 3:8

When a parent is teaching a teen to drive, one piece of advice they may give is: “Watch your blind spot!”  As it turns out, that’s great advice!

When you’re driving a car, a blind spot is where something may be, at the side of the car, that you can’t see in your mirrors. But each of us has blind spots in our lives as well—flaws that we can’t see, habits that we don’t recognize that we even have.  Each of us needs a Dana. Dana is a friend of mine who has the gift of being both wise, blunt and kind. I know that she has my good in mind when she calls me out on something she sees going sideways in my life.  The question is, will I respond with humility and receive her correction?

Rich Villodas points out, “The person being formed in humility is one who receives and even pursues correction.  Why?  Because the humble person recognizes the presence of blind spots.”[1]  Scripture instructs us, “…all of you should be of one mind.  Sympathize with each other.  Love each other as brothers and sisters.  Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude” (1 Peter 3:8). In short, having a humble attitude means I welcome another set of eyes on my life.

But beyond thinking rightly about myself, a humble attitude changes the way I respond in general.  “Humility requires us to admit that we don’t see the full picture about ourselves, God or the world,”[2] Villodas concludes.

How about you?  Do you know where your blind spot is?  Would you be open to asking a friend to point it out to you?

[1] Villodas, Rich. “Beyond the Walls of the False Self.” Good and Beautiful and Kind: Becoming Whole in a Fractured World, Crown Publishing Group, The, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 109.

[2] Ibid.