P R I D E

How often do you stop to think about the word PRIDE?

What is Pride?  Is it a good thing or is it bad?

To have pride in our country is a great thing!  I do take pride in our country and I have a lot of pride in knowing that our country was built on God and Country. We are a Christian nation even if there are those (in leadership positions) that want to believe otherwise.

I believe that Pride is particularly useful when it comes to helping us maintain our standards.  Having Pride is important because it allows us to have dignity and values in our own lives.  I am proud of our daughters, I am proud of my grandchildren, I am proud of my church, I am proud to be a christian.......these are things that almost all of us can say.....
So,.... Pride can be a good thing.

It is what we do with Pride that can cause it to be harmful or bad for us.  I have thought about this quite a bit and I have discovered that this word becomes dangerous when we add the suffix (FUL)
to the word. 

When we are prideful, we sometimes want recognition for everything we do.  For instance, some of the jobs we do are not going to be highly visible to other people.  Seldom does anyone want to do the DIRTY work because we are too full of ourselves and we feel that these jobs should be left to the so called LESS FORTUNATE....The important thing to remember is that the dirty work is what is most valuable in getting a job done.  We need to respect that the true motivation is to get the job done, not to do a job for our own recognition. 

I know that so many times, we strike out at blameless people who get in our way.  We do this because we are embarrassed and our pride is hurt. We want to take credit for all the good and when it comes to things that do not turn out so well, then we want to blame others.  For reasons such as this, we should guard ourselves against letting pride lead us into hurting others.

It is very difficult for us to say "I was wrong" or "I need some help."  These phrases require some humility on our part and that is something that most of us are not good at.  We need to learn to be open to advice from others and we need to learn to admit our mistakes.  Who wants to see someone else succeed in something that we have been working so hard to accomplish?  We do not want to look like a failure, so we allow our Pride and insecurities to take control.  

Our spiritual Pride blinds us to our own faults and it magnifies the faults of others.  This can cause our christian values to be disregarded as we struggle to paint a different picture of ourselves.
We should never allow our Pride to keep us from serving God or from understanding His word. 

We are to humbly THANK GOD for what he has done and we should allow ourselves to encourage others in their FAITH.  There may be those whose are struggling with life and need to know that they are not the only ones going through whatever it is they are going through.  We need to make sure that our Pride does not keep us from sharing a testimony with those that need to hear it. 

Nothing we do comes from our own strength.  God gives us strength, He gives us wisdom, and without Him, we would be nothing.  Throughout scripture we are told about the consequences of PRIDE......Proverbs 16:18-19 tells us that "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.  Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud."

Search my heart God and know my ways!  Remove any pride that is harmful to myself or to others.  Help me to see the Blessings in my life and help me to realize that these Blessings come from you, and not from anything that I do.  Help me not to be critical of others and help me to show love in everything I do....

Shug..................

Give God Glory in everything you do!