amen to all the good posts....
I have often reflected on the significance of a person's height, I am neither short nor tall, being very average at 5' 11''.... I mean, what does it really mean to be proud of one's height anyway? Is a person superior simply because of how tall they are? If so, then all the kids who are bothering you about your height must also be inferior to people like Shaq.... who is himself inferior to those (few!!) other people who are taller than him!!!! According to their criteria (taller = better) Yao must be an even better person than Shaq!!! And Robert Padlow at 8 ft 11 must be the greatest person ever!!! lol!!!! Its downright silly when you think about for even a minute!! The same thing goes for physical strength.... there is always someone out there who is stronger, faster, badder, etc..... people who think they are superior to someone else simply based on their natural height, strength, or ability to fight, all operate on a very superficial primitive basis... we are not cave men.... a person's being taller than me does not say anything about their character at all.... when I was in boot camp we had to go to the gas chambers and experience tear gas.... we were instructed to properly put on our gas masks, and then instructed to enter the gas chamber and take them off once the gas flooded the chamber....... and then we had to sing happy birthday to the drill instructor or give our social security number or recite the alphabet or something inane.... the point being we had to keep our heads and be cool and think straight even under the pressure of having one's vision nearly taken away, the burning on all the exposed skin, and the immediate release of all sinus fluid (gross!! lol)..... and who would have thought it but that the biggest strongest guy out of 4 platoons broke down and cried like a baby, panicked, and literally broke down the door to the gas chamber in order to get out!!! After the drill instructors were done pummeling him, he lost the respect of everyone in the 4 platoons because we all learned what kind of person he was inside that day... sure he was big and strong, but when it came down to it, he did not have the internal discipline and lack of fear in that environment that was necessary to be a good Marine...
another example of the height thing being no factor as to character was exemplified in Viet Nam.... there were these little guys they called "tunnel rats".... these were some of the bravest men I could think of... they had to be physically small like the Viet Cong in order to go into the tunnels, and had to be incredibly brave to go into these unknown tunnels with trip wires, pitch blackness, enemies could be right in front of your nose and you might not know it until it was too late!!!!.. these guys carried out incredibly important and dangerous missions.... and they were the smallest guys in the platoons....
so in the end, being prideful at how tall you are is like being proud of the color your eyes.... what did a person ever do to warrant being proud at the color of their eyes? the eyes they have were given to them by God, and it is just the same with a person's height.... the tall person has no more reason to think they are superior to another person because of their height then they are about the color of their eyes or or natural color of their hair... they did nothing to get these things, therefore there is nothing to be proud (or ashamed) about regarding their physical traits....
I am sensitive to this issue because my son is extremely gifted musically.... and he and I talk a lot about how he has no right to think himself better than someone else because of his musical ability and he has to strive to remain humble when things musical come so easy for him and he sees almost everyone else in the school having to strain to learn this or that piece of music.... he did nothing to get that ability, therefore this ability is not an "accomplishment" which someone could be proud of as far as attaining it by effort.... there was no "attaining" it at all, no effort went into getting it, which is just the same for height, eye color, natural hair color, whatever.... therefore it is nothing to be proud or ashamed of....what he DOES with that ability.... well, that is something else entirely.... it could all be wasted if he does not work hard to make the most of his gift!!!..... but being proud of an accomplishment does not mean being prideful, for even in the things we have to exercise effort at attaining, this also comes by the grace of God giving the ability to carry out this or that task, so in the end, there is no room for pride in the negative sense for any reason at all, let alone being prideful because of the distance between one's feet and head!!!!!.....
blessings,
Ken