It’s hard to think sensibly of ourselves. We often look at our gifts one of two ways: Either with too much pride and entitlement or with a degrading view and lack of self-esteem. How do we learn to look at our gifts in a way that benefits the church and keeps us humble?

When we feel that fire inside of us, we need to tame it with a pause. As James wrote to the dispersed Christians, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19–20 ESV). How can we practice being slow to speak and quick to hear? By pausing, studying, and listening.

As writers, we endure many deaths in order to grow. Our “darlings” fall before our eyes as editors cut them from our work—from beloved words to entire paragraphs we labored over. This is the process of the outer bark and old leaves wilting away. But as writers, we can trust these deaths will sprout growth too—not just in our writing, but in our lives too.

One day as I struggled to burp one baby while the other wiggled next to me, I muttered to my husband, “God should have given mothers of multiples the ability to grow an extra arm.” But as each day passed and more people offered to help, I realized that God had given us something much better than extra limbs—he had given us whole people who loved us and our children.

Discernment is good. Desiring to see God’s name honoured and his Word rightly divided is a righteous desire. But there’s a type of hunting goes beyond loving and gentle discernment. Like Miss. Morton from Northanger Abbey, they enjoy the adrenaline of the hunt.

My dear sister who loves theology, I must ask: Has this knowledge and theology changed you yet? Has your abounding comprehensionfound its way to your heart so as to shape your life? Do the words you speak, the thoughts you think, the actions you commit represent the information in your mind?

My theology-loving friend, I want to warn you of the same pride that could grow inside of you as you grow in knowledge. When we are not using our theology to love and serve God and those he has placed around us, our knowledge could be our downfall.

Whether you think you are already a pretty humble person, or you think you need lots of growth in the area of humility, here are six characteristics of a humble woman of God.