Okay, you’ve heard it before. Pride comes before the fall. Let’s think through this in today’s post. Are you ready to lay down your pride? Watch your step. I don’t want you to fall.
Today I am talking about pride when it comes to relationships. What does pride have to do with that? Everything! What is this pride I speak of?
Pride (noun) – a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.
Proverbs 16:18 The Message
First pride, then the crash—
the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.
Let me put it into my own words. Pride is when you’ve become too big for your britches. You, what you think and do, have become more important (at least in your own mind) than anyone else.
Pride Takes
Have you ever seen the movie Hook with Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams? I bet I watched it 50 times when my oldest (now 31) was just a little shaver. There is one scene after Hook had kidnapped Peter Panning’s kids. And Hook, as he is talking about why parents hate their kids, says that kids are all about, “Me, me, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now, now!” The whole scene is quite funny. You can watch the whole scene in the following video clip, but the 50-second mark is where Captain Hook makes his point.
So pride is selfish. It’s all about one’s self. IF IT IS about someone else, it’s because there are ulterior, self-serving motives.
We see pride all over the place. We see it in ourselves. It is seen in others even more so (because we have a log in our eyeball).
So pride is about ME, it’s about my SELF:
- SELF-ish
- Thinking excessively about SELF
- SELF-love
- Thinking the worth of my SELF is higher than it actually is
- SELF-worship
- Preoccupation with my SELF image
- In love with my image or SELF
- SELF-centered – everything revolves around me
- The focus is my SELF
ROI (Return on Investment)
When you live a prideful life there is NOT a good ROI on it.
Why? You didn’t make the investments in life or relationships. And now you feel you deserve a return for nothing? One might be thinking though, “But look at me! I am deserving. I am more. I am smart. I provide. I do this, and I do that. So what do I get in return?”
OUCH!
A great big ouch after the fall! That’s what you get in return. Pride tears down. Pride brings others down. It has too. In order for pride to be what it is, it tears others down in order to gain an advantage and give a feeling of being lifted up. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Self Elevation Does Not Work
In order to take or make withdraws you have to make deposits first, or there is nothing there to take.
Being Lifted Up
You are either tearing someone down, or you are lifting them up. So a prideful person can’t be a blessing to someone else. You have to lay your pride down in order to lift someone else up. The Bible calls it humbling one’s self.
Matthew 23:12 NIV
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Challenge of the Week
Do you really know Jesus? Do you understand He wrote the laws of the universe? If you do and put away what the world wants to ingrain into you, then lay down your pride, humble yourself, and be lifted up. Look for opportunities to lift others up this week – it’s what humble people do. God will indeed lift you up in return – it’s what God does! So be it.
PS: Be Careful. Pride begins and happens in the smallest, seemingly insignificant of ways.
