I glanced out of the window and spotted the colorful poster on the stone wall across the street from our hotel. We were celebrities! The large poster advertising our nightly meetings in Khammam, India featured flattering photos along with puzzling words written in the Telugu language. How exciting to think that our pictures were posted all over the town. I found myself frequently drawn to the window where I would gaze with fascination upon the poster. And occasionally, as I watched, people would even stop and carefully study it, reading with interest the mystery words. I prayed that they would be drawn to the meetings.

The following morning I awoke early and the first thing I did was open the curtains to let in the sunlight. Imagine my surprise when I looked across the street and saw that a little white goat was standing by the wall devouring the poster. He had started at the left corner of the poster and bite by bite it was disappearing from the wall. I watched as the hungry animal nibbled on my photo, completely consuming it within a matter of seconds.

"Look what this goat is doing!" I called out to my husband. "The silly thing is eating our poster. See, he's starting in on your picture right now!" But by the time that Jack got to the window, it was all over. Nothing of the poster remained. Our claim to fame had vanished right before our eyes.

"I don't think it was anything personal," Jack chuckled. "That little goat was probably just after the glue on the back of the poster."

Through that experience I certainly learned first hand that "pride goes before destruction" (Proverbs 16:18). How very fleeting is success. It's also very interesting to note that God has a way of sending two-legged goats into our lives to bring us down to size when we begin to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. There is always someone available who will come along to nibble you right off the wall (Biblical rendering--humble you) when you need to be brought down a notch or two. A spirit of pride can quickly be devoured by a few fitly spoken words of criticism or disapproval.

When an attitude of self-confidence and vainglory is lifted up in your heart, you can be sure that the Lord will not allow this evidence of pride to be displayed on the wall of His kingdom. It must come down. And the Lord has appointed "goats" in our midst who are more than willing to do the work of removing every vestige of vanity and conceit.

When the Lord's blessings begin to flow it really isn't difficult to become puffed up and prideful. Unless we're very careful, we can find ourselves attempting to infringe on God's glory. Let me assure you that the Lord loves us way too much to allow that to happen. So when you encounter criticism and condemnation, perhaps these are only hungry goats that the Lord is using to do a deep work in your life. Let them nibble away. Remember, they probably don't have anything against you personally. They're just after that icky pride that's clinging to you.