Foolish Pride

This morning as my husband was getting ready for work, I found myself complaining to him. I was frustrated with someone over something rather trivial, but for a moment, in my mind, it seemed like a big deal. I don’t know if it is just because a situation was handled differently than how I would have handled it, but I think there was definitely an element of pride involved, an area I continually struggle with. I don’t typically consider myself a prideful person. Sure, I am proud of my children and my husband and others in my life and even of myself on occasion when I overcome a challenge and I think in those instances it’s okay to have a sense of pride or accomplishment. Where pride can come in and cause problems is when we are putting ourselves above someone else. Perhaps we don’t even realize that we are doing that. It often takes me awhile to notice that I am acting or thinking in a way that is prideful. When I catch a glimpse of what is going on, I need to stop and get my thoughts back on a good track. This is not done by my own accord. I have to bring this fault to God and first confess to Him that I know what I am doing is wrong, to ask His forgiveness (which I know He will freely give) and to then ask that He help to grow me in this area. Yikes! That feels very difficult sometimes, because we are so stuck in our mindset of thinking that we are right and we deserve something different. Just to be clear, I do believe that there are times that people can do wrong to us and our feeling upset by that is not rooted in pride. I just know that when I check myself and my own reactions, that is often what it comes back to for me. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” No sugar-coating in that verse. Lol. Thankfully, God is abundant in mercy and grace! Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” Whew!! I am so relieved that the God who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them is abounding in love and that he is crazy about us!

Where is an area in your life that you struggle with pride? How do you work through it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Judge Not?

 I was reading yesterday from the book Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People's Hearts the Way Jesus Did by Randy Newman. In the couple of pages I was reading he was talking about judging. Oftentimes people will quote Matthew 7:1 if they feel a Christian is trying to talk to them about a possible wrong-doing, or if they see someone headed down a bad path, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged." In Randy's book he spoke of the original wording used in this passage and that though it was translated to "judge" (and that is a close translation), it's really more of a "condemning judgment" that was being referred to. Jesus Himself has pointed out sin. It isn't that we shouldn't call out sin or try to help someone if we see them going in a wrong direction. We should however not judge others from a place of self-righteousness, but out of love and concern. In Luke 6:42 Jesus says, "How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take th...
Read more
Find Your Balance Lately I have felt some unbalance in my life. Can you relate? You have areas where you feel things are going pretty well, but something just seems a little off. Sometimes, we have no idea why we feel that way and other times we can pinpoint exactly what is missing. Recently for me the area of unbalance in my life is that of a physical nature. I have been seeing so many people around me doing so many amazing things to better their health and take care of their bodies. We only get one body in this life and so we should rightfully take care of it. 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” This is an area that I have been falling short in for a long time. Sure, I pay attention to what I eat and have mostly always tried to incorporate healthy foods into my diet and have tried to moderate the foods that are not as good for me, but I am not the best at that. I have a weakness for sweets of all variety, but more than that...
Read more
Haters Gonna Hate There is so much noise on social media lately. I know the easy answer would be to stop going on social media and I have had to take breaks. I've had to unfollow some people for my own wellbeing and then I have gone back and re-followed them, thinking perhaps I was being close-minded. I recently read To Hell with the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke and he talked about how we don't really listen/care about what others are feeling or saying, what we're really looking for is for people to agree with our opinions. I see this playing out in so many posts on social media from various political points, ideas surrounding the pandemic and regarding the recent protests and social justice. Everyone has their own opinions and sometimes we continuously share the same opinion over and over and over in hopes of what? Do we think the 15th time we share a post about the importance of wearing a mask we will finally break through to all of our stubborn non-mask wearing friends a...
Read more