Slight is a terrible verb. It means to insult someone by not showing them proper respect or attention. When slighted, we feel ignored, demoted, and dishonored. Twice in the last few weeks, I felt slighted, and I hated the feeling. Someone treated me in a certain way—dismissing my skills and expertise—and I chose to believe I was small, unseen, unqualified, and unimportant.
Has this ever happened to you?
Feeling slighted makes me feel frantic to prove myself.
I hated feeling so self-important and insecure. What was wrong in my heart that I would allow myself to feel slighted at all? I thought about how Jesus was slighted all the time, but He never once moped around wishing He were noticed more or given more public recognition. Never. He didn’t beg for high honor, the best seat, the public approval, or the proper respect—and He was the Lord of the Universe. He just didn’t need it; He knew who He was, and He was busy fulfilling His mission.
I remembered Philippians 2:3 where Paul commands, “Do nothing out of self ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” When I thought of other people this way—as better, as the ones worthy of respect and honor—suddenly I didn’t feel slighted anymore. As I read the rest of Philippians 2, we’re invited to consider Jesus who “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.” I thought about Christian maturity and how I can take the unseen, dishonored place because, like Jesus, I know who I am in God’s eyes.
Besides, when I’m focusing on honoring and blessing others, considering them more important and better than myself, I won’t have any time left to worry about what others are thinking about me. I’m busy fulfilling any mission God gives me.