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When accusations arose that President Trump has dementia, that he exhibits characteristics of multiple mental health disorders, and that he is truly and objectively crazy, I smirked. When POTUS responded that he was a very stable genius I cracked up, laughing. Many psychologists and pundits did not. They took him serious, and said he had once again shown that he suffered from grandiose narcicism. One columnist insisted with uber sobriety that anyone who declared his own stability and genius was unstable and foolish. Step back. Recognize the "I be all and know-all" schtick for what it is. Rush Limbaugh has been doing the same for nearly 30 years. The President was tweaking his critics, intentionally poking, prodding and irritating them. And...they reacted just like he wanted them to. Along comes a cabal of psychologists, soberly warning that POTUS is a clear and present danger, saying that their 'duty to warn' exceeds the Goldwater Rule (prohibiting psychologist from publicly diagnosing those they have not professionally interacted with). Thankfully, the APA re-affirmed the Goldwater Rule, and urged its members to cease and desist with the political grandstanding. Bottom-line: Oppose the President's policies and actions. Question his wisdom and tactics. Do not use implied expertise and unverifiable mental health speculations to attempt to undermine an election. POTUS can defend himself, and I do not always want to. However, I bristle at highly trained people who squander their expertise and bring disrepute on their professions. FWIW, I hate it when clergy pontificate about politics in ways that imply that the truly faithful could not help but agree with them.

Somebody paid me a nice compliment today, and I have to admit I enjoyed receiving it. Then I wondered if I was not being prideful to take such delight in praise. I thought some more. No, maybe it is a sign of humility to feel pleasant surprise at kudos. What say you? BTW, part of making this string fun might be to extend praise to another member of the site. I'll start with TRAVELER. He always makes me think hard. Further, I discern he does the same to fellow members. His angle of thought is never that which is typical or common.

I asked my three daughters (11, 13 & 15) why they thought a prison staff member would be tricked into doing favors for an inmate. They all came up with the same answer I had--PRIDE. We think we can help others by trusting them. We think we see what others do not see. We think we can make a difference in a life by being their support. I hate to discourage any of that in the broad sense. However, true humility says we help people by pointing them towards God--not be violating ethics to be a hero. Who knows? Maybe I'm raising up the next generation of prison chaplains. :-) ​

the scriptures talk about becoming humble and how important humility is, which i recognize. I want to become more humble as should everyone else reading this post, since there is always room for improvement. So how do you actually become more humble? how do strengthen humility? is it simply giving thanks to the Lord for accomplishments? is it asking the Lord for help in everything before trying to accomplish something (since that would imply that you are nothing and require help, which is true)? the reason i ask is because of this: anyone can say, "oh yeah, i understand that without Heavenly Father i would be even less than dust." However, people can say a lot of things (like "i believe in Christ" even without exercising faith). How can i exercise humility in a way that will help me become even more humble?