If you missed it, see last Monday's introductory post about this series
Look-at-me-Louie is a debonair little guy in the book. Blond, well-dressed, riding a skateboard, a satisfied smile on his face, and his hands on his hips. Louie will always be showing off and demanding attention. He is sure he is great at everything, and no one can tell him otherwise.
I am sure that you have seen grown-up Louie. He talks constantly—about himself and his accomplishments. Kind of like a neighbor I once had who told us often of all the money he made before he retired. It was plain what he was proud of—his wealth, and he was happy to tell us again and again how he had gained it.
Grown-up Louie now sports a SELF-satisfied smile. He can be loud at times, demanding attention not just from the one he is talking to, but the whole room. He believes he is always the best choice for whatever position or honor comes along and can get downright ugly if he does not get it. Kind of like a man I knew long ago and far away who started a smear campaign against an eldership because he himself wasn't chosen.
Grown-up Louie does not take correction well at all. "Why, how dare you try to tell me something when I am so much better than you are." We once tried to help a young man whose name might as well have been Louie. He already knew everything he needed to know, thank you very much. "Why, I am used as the good example to everyone else! No one can teach me anything." He knew more than people thirty years older with decades more experience. There was no way we lowly people could possibly help him.
He was right, actually. We could not help him--because he did not believe he needed to be helped. And that is the sad truth about all the Louies you may know. The elders cannot help them. Preachers and teachers cannot help them. No one can help them until they learn to see themselves clearly in the mirror of God's Word. The only thing they will hear is praise because that is all they think they deserve. Once you stop that, they become deaf to you.
Some of the Louies out there will actually grow up and learn to listen, but some not. I know a few in their 60s who still cannot stand to hear that they have made a mistake. Suddenly, you become the enemy instead of a friend. But sometimes something happens to wake them up. That's wonderful, but think of all the wasted years, the things they might have learned, and the progress they might have made if they had not been a Look-at-me-Louie in the first place.
Don't waste your life looking for praise and spurning instruction. You will wind up being so much less than you could have been for the Lord.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. Prov 9:9
A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. Prov 13:1
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Rom 12:3
Dene Ward
Look-at-me-Louie is a debonair little guy in the book. Blond, well-dressed, riding a skateboard, a satisfied smile on his face, and his hands on his hips. Louie will always be showing off and demanding attention. He is sure he is great at everything, and no one can tell him otherwise.
I am sure that you have seen grown-up Louie. He talks constantly—about himself and his accomplishments. Kind of like a neighbor I once had who told us often of all the money he made before he retired. It was plain what he was proud of—his wealth, and he was happy to tell us again and again how he had gained it.
Grown-up Louie now sports a SELF-satisfied smile. He can be loud at times, demanding attention not just from the one he is talking to, but the whole room. He believes he is always the best choice for whatever position or honor comes along and can get downright ugly if he does not get it. Kind of like a man I knew long ago and far away who started a smear campaign against an eldership because he himself wasn't chosen.
Grown-up Louie does not take correction well at all. "Why, how dare you try to tell me something when I am so much better than you are." We once tried to help a young man whose name might as well have been Louie. He already knew everything he needed to know, thank you very much. "Why, I am used as the good example to everyone else! No one can teach me anything." He knew more than people thirty years older with decades more experience. There was no way we lowly people could possibly help him.
He was right, actually. We could not help him--because he did not believe he needed to be helped. And that is the sad truth about all the Louies you may know. The elders cannot help them. Preachers and teachers cannot help them. No one can help them until they learn to see themselves clearly in the mirror of God's Word. The only thing they will hear is praise because that is all they think they deserve. Once you stop that, they become deaf to you.
Some of the Louies out there will actually grow up and learn to listen, but some not. I know a few in their 60s who still cannot stand to hear that they have made a mistake. Suddenly, you become the enemy instead of a friend. But sometimes something happens to wake them up. That's wonderful, but think of all the wasted years, the things they might have learned, and the progress they might have made if they had not been a Look-at-me-Louie in the first place.
Don't waste your life looking for praise and spurning instruction. You will wind up being so much less than you could have been for the Lord.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. Prov 9:9
A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. Prov 13:1
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Rom 12:3
Dene Ward
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