Do you struggle with your pride? Do you wish to be more humble?

Pride is the excessive love for one’s own excellence. It is one of the seven capital sins. You probably heard from your priest or pastor that it is the queen of vices and that it leads to many other sins. Sadly, in this day and age, these definitions can go way over our heads. Is pride really dangerous? Why do we have to avoid it? To remedy that, let me give you THE 3 PRACTICAL REASONS TO AVOID PRIDE.

1 Pride Stops Us From Growing.

When people hit a certain level of success, they become complacent. They lower their guard and start to settle. Why? Because of pride. They feel that they are too good to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. They stop sharpening their saw. They stop improving their core gifts. They are satisfied already. Eventually, they stop growing. This is a dangerous mindset.

If we wish to rise, then we need to build a good foundation. It could be like warming up for a workout or a run or studying the basics of your subject or field or simply cleaning up your house. You know, the basics. For the proud, it seems humiliating to do the foundational stuff. They feel that they’re too good for that kind of thing but we all need to master the basics to grow. If you want to keep growing, then be humble.

2 Pride Stops Us From Adapting.

In a crisis, the proud have difficulty adjusting to the times. They are too proud to innovate. They cling to their glory days. Even when it becomes necessary to adapt to their situation, they cannot. Their vanity blinds them from seeing their weaknesses. All these will lead the proud to an even worse crisis.

Do you want to experience a disaster? Do you want to experience a fall? Of course not! No one wants that. We all want to rise. Make sure to make time every day for a few minutes of reflection. Reflect on the times when you acted with pride during the day. The best times to have these reflections are around lunch and just before you go to sleep at night.

When you feel the temptation to be proud, pray the Litany For Humility. It is a powerful prayer that reminds you what it means to be humble.

3 Pride Stops Us From Seeing.

The proud want to be the center. They want to be on the top. They want to be first. They want all eyes and ears to be trained on them. This is self-destructive behavior. Pride blinds us to the value of others. Pride weakens our capacity for understanding.

I have my own struggles with pride. I have been wrestling with it for years. But eventually, I learned how to manage the temptation to be proud. How? By getting to know Jesus more. I remembered what Jesus did. He washed the feet of his disciples and declared the least as the greatest in His kingdom. He sacrificed Himself on the cross for us. Jesus is a servant king. Jesus is a sacrificial king. Jesus is the humblest king. It was in knowing Jesus and what He has done and more importantly following him that helped me in my own struggle against pride. Remember what Jesus did then follow him. If you want to avoid pride then follow Jesus. If you want to be humble then follow Jesus. If you want to rise then follow Jesus.

Thank you so much for reading this post from The Upsurge. Please consider sharing this post. It helps to spread the message of hope.  God bless you!