I have been reading this book with my mentor from church for several months now. Each chapter focuses on a different sin that is often times not even considered a sin by the world or by many Christians. Just because I am not aware of it not being a sin, doesn't make it any less of a sin. It is so easy for me to find the sin in others, but this book has really helped open my eyes to the sins that I am committing that I didn't really consider as sin.
For example, the chapter I started today is talking about selfishness. I see this with my third graders A LOT. "I want to be first in line. I want to hold that. That was my idea. Blah, blah, blah." As we grow up, we learn that selfishness is not socially smiled upon, so we learn to mask it in different ways. I can definitely identify with the first way that Jerry Bridges mentions selfishness and that is in regard to our interests. I wonder how many times I have finished a conversation with someone, and they are like, "Geez, could they talk about themselves anymore???" I did this last week with my roommates. We were talking, or should I say, I was talking about all these different things that I had happened to me that day. And they were funny stories, too! And then, "Oh, it's time for bed." I had just monopolized the entire conversation.
Bridges points out that the reason this is a sin issue is because it is a symptom of self-centeredness. I need to cultivate a sensitivity to allow the other person to discuss things of interest to them. What a great thing to put into practice!
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