Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility…. Zephaniah 2:3
Some might see humility as a roadblock to success. The Bible teaches just the opposite stating in a number of places that pride, not humility, is the real handicap. Indeed, humility can enable success because a humble person won’t rest on their laurels; rather the unpretentious individual will take nothing for granted because they have learned that no one is going to give them anything. Success has to be earned. Josiah Bartlett is knew this.
Bartlett wasn’t “born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” His background was so humble that he wasn’t even able to or allowed to go to school. Undeterred, he learned medicine informally — taught by a local doctor who apparently believed in young Bartlett.
From that humble beginning, he eventually established his own successful practice of medicine. Later in life, Bartlett helped begin a successful new nation as a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
(For more information on Bartlett, see Signing Their Lives Away, by Denise Kiernan, 2009)
