Read Mark 10:45

God's true servant is like the Lord Jesus, who came not "to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

To serve and to give.

Pride wants strokes—lots of them. It loves to get the credit, to be mentioned, to receive glory, to have people ooh and ahh. Ideally, your superiors will be thoughtful people who give you the credit you deserve, but, regrettably, that will not always occur. And your pride will need to be held in check.

At those tough times when you do the work and someone else gets the strokes, remember your role: to serve and to give.

True love flowing from authentic servants does not keep a record of who did what, and it does not look to others for the credit. In other words, real servants stay conscious of the blindness pride can create.

Excerpted from Improving Your Serve: The Art of Unselfish Living, Copyright 1981 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. (Thomas Nelson Publishers). All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.