This is International Toot Your Flute Day.

You’ve probably never celebrated Toot Your Flute Day, or even heard of it. This sounds a lot like “blow your own horn,” an old expression that means bragging or boasting about yourself and your accomplishments. Neither of these sayings is about music—just talking. The basic idea is that we ought to broadcast our accomplishments and let people know what we’ve done.

That may sound tempting to do when no one seems to notice our victories or good deeds and others seem to get all the credit and recognition. We can feel like screaming, “Hey! Look at me! Here’s what I did!” And having an International Day like this one seems to give us permission to let everyone know how good we are.

The Bible has another idea, wrapped up in the word humility.

As you read Scripture, you will come upon this word and idea quite often—everything from “The Lord . . . shows favor to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34) to “Anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:4).

Being humble means doing what we know is right and not caring who gets the credit. It means working on the fringes, outside the spotlight. It involves serving faithfully.

Having humility is difficult in a world where pride rules, where people trash talk, flaunt their accomplishments, parade their trophies, and strive to be No.1. It doesn’t seem fair that no one notices or appears to care about us or what we do.

But God sees . . . and he cares.

Today’s verse provides a powerful reminder—God is “mighty” and “in his good time” he will honor us. And his honor is the only one that really matters anyway.

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you (1 Peter 5:6).

To Do

Today, purposely do something for someone anonymously. In other words, do a good deed without ever letting the person know that you were the one who did it. You could give a gift, clean a sibling’s room, pick up trash in the park—be creative. Remember, no matter how tempting, never tell anyone what you did. The point is not to get credit but to know the pure joy of humble service.

Also on this day

This is National Denim Day. Can you say jeans?

1648—The first volunteer fire department was established in New York City by Peter Stuyvesant.

1957—The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into orbit around the Earth. It was the first human-made satellite to enter space.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.