Yes I can be a little Prideful Patty. I can feel when pride wants to rear up inside and make itself known. Hi! I struggle with pride. The Bible talks up and down about the affects of pride, the way pride behaves and what pride really seeks. I, like everyone else in creation struggle with pride and trying to control it.
There is good pride and their is bad pride.
Today, I struggled with the bad pride.
Pride that is self-seeking, self exalting and self-righteous.
The number one person that my pride is tested on the most is my husband.
(Ding Ding Winner!) Why? Well for starters we are around each other a lot, and two, we are trying to be in community with one another and still trying our best to learn and grow on our own. When our priorities are mixed up and not on the same page, we are not on the same page. Feelings get hurt, emotions are sensitive and pride shows itself large and in charge.
I have found that when I am focused on my own circumstances, not taking initiative and not spending daily moments meditating, I am very self-focused, not God focused, husband focused or Riley focused. I find myself wrapped up in the grips of pride and oh how easily I succumb to its ways.
The word of God says:
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Prov. 16:18
"Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1Pet. 5:5
"He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions..". 1Tim 6:4
A few definitions of pride-
- It is "a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired."
- a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people
- a feeling that you are more important or better than other people
- a feeling of happiness that you get when you or someone you know does something good, difficult, etc.
So WHY is it so bad?
Pride is ugly because it is self-focused. When we truly want to love, seek love, be love to all, pride is the opposite. Pride will tell us that the homeless man is probably lazy, don't give them your money, your hard earned money, that YOU worked for because they won't spend it on anything good. Pride looks at correction as a threat and attacks. Pride gives way to bitterness and resentment. Pride looks inward, while GOD would have us look outward.
Pride wants your world small and narrow,
while Love,
God would have your world enlarged
so that Christ be glorified.
Now, this, this is all being written during the aftermath, the calm after the storm. The hardest part is living out the knowledge you have stored away. True wisdom shows up in the midst of the storm and unleashes all the knowledge. So how do we access this true knowledge when we most need it? Spend time with your creator. Get to know the God who loves, and is not prideful. Sit and hear the voice of the one who unshackles your chains. He will give wisdom. He will give insight. He will give strength, peace and humility in the midst of your Prideful Patty's!
Share your favorite anti-pride verses. What types of situations do find pride wanting to show up?
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