Gild the Lily
My friend Pam recently made chocolate chip pancakes. In addition to chocolate chips inside the pancakes, she sprinkled extra on top. Her husband asked why. Pam said, “I guess I’m just gilding the lily.” She was trying to make a good pancake better.
To gild the lily is to try to improve something that is already great.
A lily is a beautiful flower. It needs nothing more.
Likewise, much in life holds great beauty. Yet, people frequently gild the lily by:
- Covering a beautiful face with too much makeup
- Adding too much jewelry to a lovely outfit
- Using fancy words when simple ones work well
- Living high on the hog rather than down to earth
Too much of anything can make a good thing bad.
Many additions are unnecessary. Some cause damage.
- A compliment sounds pleasing. Flattery does not.
- Apologies and forgiveness restore a relationship. Unnecessary apologies may weaken it.
Improve what needs to be improved, but leave excellence alone.
“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27 NIV).
Thanks to Pam Tennant and Kristy Robinson Horine for the suggestion.
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