8-19-14 Tooting Your Own Horn

“Toot-toot-TOOOOOOT-toot.” My kids had gotten noisemakers in Junior Church service and were having a “blast” on the way home.  They especially enjoyed the type that unfurled in each other’s faces. To retain our sanity we had to confiscate the noisemakers.  It seems the one making the noise had a great time, but the recipients of said din didn’t share in said annoyance.

As adults, we can find people that talk only about themselves and their accomplishments just as annoying. Certainly we can share in the joy others have when something exciting happens in their lives. Sometimes we are like little kids showing off something new.  But the truly annoying horn tooting comes from those that do so repeatedly.  They try to bolster their self-esteem by doing so.

I worked as an auto body repairman and that world is full of egos.  Blatant self-promotional horn-tooting ran amuck.  Nobody put much credibility into it. However, on the rare occasion that a bodyman complimented another bodyman, it really meant something.

In this passage, the Pharisees were accusing Jesus of tooting His own horn, which destroyed His credibility in their minds. Jesus went on to show them that He did, in fact, have the credibility they required. He did not simply toot His own horn for self-promotion.  He had God the Father on His side. He was teaching truths about Himself and God.

The thought God is pressing on my mind today is to be careful to give God His proper place in my life.

“The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.” John 8:13.

© copyright Kevin T Boekhoff


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