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Good morning.

I’m sufficiently old to remember the furore when the government announced that it was going to set an objective limit on the amount of alcohol you could drink and still be fit to drive a car. Too young to drive, of course. And I’m saying nothing about drink. But I remember lots of men – and I do mean "men" – saying, "Rubbish, I can drink ten pints and drive home safely". And they really believed it – and lots of them did it. Drove, that is, not safely – as the accident figures testified. But there really was a view that such limits only applied to other, weaker people – the speaker was always above such limitations.

Well the drinking and driving message may have sunk in for the majority of the population, but I’m not sure about the other lesson, that "the normal rules do apply to me". And if I’m being brutally honest, I think that’s even true of me, there’s a bit of me that thinks, "I’m different. I don’t need to follow that advice, keep those rules, open that instruction book."

Which is probably enough confession for one morning, so I’ll just ask, ever so quietly, if it’s just possible that I’m not unique in thinking this way. And, if I’m right, whether the world would be a bit of a better place if we all had sufficient humility – and realism – to realise that the normal rules include us, whether we’re thinking about the effects of eating, or drinking, or smoking, or even exercise.

Lord God,

we are all your children,

we share our weaknesses with our neighbours,

we aren’t supermen or wonder-women;

give us the gift of humility

so that we may accept ourselves for who we are

and your love for us – with all our imperfections and limitations.

Amen