Too Big For My Britches

My grandfather had a wonderful way of telling me when I was thinking too highly of myself.

“You are getting too big for your britches,” he’d say…and I knew that was the signal to find some humility.

This week I got a little too big for my britches.

I constantly remind myself of the wonderful life I live…the privilege of being the president of WTC…and still there are times that having the corner office expands my cranium and my britches until I recognize the swelling and consciously slap myself down.

The occasion that brought my most recent self smack-down came when an old acquaintance made an interesting entry on her Facebook page.

She changed her last name.

I make it a practice to try and stay out of other people’s business…but a mutual friend just had to get the story. He merely asked “What’s going on?” And that opened the door for me to join in. I wrote…for all to see….”Enquiring minds….” Short for “enquiring minds need to know.”

A relative of the woman, who obviously knew the story….took it from there. He wrote:

“Inquiring.*”

Now, most every other person on the planet would not have taken offense to someone correcting what they believed to be a misspelled word. But for whatever reason…..I did.

How pathetic. Why it bothered me that someone was correcting my spelling is mystifying to me. Maybe it is because 126 people report to me and---while I encourage honesty from them----most don’t choose to correct me. In fact there’s only a few that cross swords with me on a regular basis.

Back to the story.

I decided it was time to do some teaching so I wrote this under “Inquiring.*”

“These are two spellings of the same word, which means to seek information about something or to conduct a formal investigation (usually when followed by “into”). The corresponding noun is enquiry or inquiry.
Either spelling can be used, but many people prefer enquire and enquiry for the general sense of “ask”, and inquire and inquiry for a formal investigation.”

To which he wrote back--

“That is a very detailed and informative response, Maybe next time I will think twice about questioning such a knowlegeable man as yourself.”

Now…I realize….I’ve crossed the bigger britches line. I am now a jerk. I’m not about to tell him he misspelled knowledgeable. I wrote--

“No...I am just a jerk when it comes to the language. Please take no offense. It is really none of my business. You are gracious and I was a pinhead.”

The woman who was the subject of the whole controversy went on to explain that she had merely changed her last name on Facebook because her company was discouraging the use of the social network.

The whole episode bothers me to this moment. I make a bucket full of mistakes on a regular basis. Since when do I have to be so sensitive when someone calls me on it? The only conceivable answer is----I knew I was right and I had to let that person know I was right.

Again….pathetic.

My britches are bigger….from a caloric standpoint….than they have been in years. But I’ve got work to do to fit into my britches when it comes to a misplaced sense of superiority.

Time to seek a humble spirit….before God does it for me.