Pam Padgett ... member of the body of Christ
My goal in getting my college degree was to help juvenile delinquents. One of the last requirements for my degree was to complete a semester working in this field. (internship) I chose to work at what was called a juvenile delinquency prevention and diversion program.
But I found I didn't like working there and I looked forward to the semester being over!
I also thought the people who ran this program did not think I was doing a good job and probably they were also looking forward to the semester being over so I wouldn't be there any more.
Surprisingly, near the end of the semester, the head of the program came to talk with me saying they all liked the work I had done and felt I had helped the teenagers there. He offered me a job working there. I was so shocked that I didn't answer him, and just wandered off!
But I was flattered by what he said. I wanted to do well and to help these teenagers, so what this man said was a big "hook" for me. I wanted to believe these things.
Incredibly, I accepted the job.
Looking back, I never enjoyed working there, sometimes dreading going to work, although I kept thinking I was wrong for feeling this way. Amazingly I worked there for about 3 years and completed a master's degree which I thought would help me do a better job of working with these teenagers.
While working on my master's degree I was again flattered, this time by one of the professors. This was in one of the early counseling classes. We were to make recordings of counseling sessions to be evaluated by the professor. I was shocked when the professor announced to the class how good my counseling sessions were. He even said he was using my recordings as examples in his more advanced classes.
It was very flattering to hear these things and they encouraged me to continue working as a counselor, thinking I must be helping these kids more than it seemed to me was the case.
But finally I could no longer ignore how futile what I was doing was and that I didn't even like doing it, and I quit.
It was a great relief to me when I quit that job, and I did not try to get another job as a counselor.
At the time these things happened I was a Christian, but very immature. I didn't know about wisdom from God nor about being led by the Holy Spirit.
I was following praise and compliments from worldly people, things which I wanted to hear and which flattered me ... and I was in a completely wrong job for 3 years.
(I later was led by God to what perfectly suited me ... computer programming!)
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Proverbs 7:4-5 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
Proverbs 26:28 ... a flattering mouth worketh ruin.
Proverbs 29:5 A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.
Proverbs 28:23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.
(Godly rebukes give an opportunity for us to correct our way and go in the way of life, while flattery leads to ruin.)
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