Pride

to think oneself better than others.

Pride is not honor. when a parent is proud of their child. or a person is proud of the job well done, it is not necessary to say that the job I did is better than others. but the job I did Honors myself and my family. or my country.

but when you think that you or anything you have including your character traits, skills, talents, possessions family name etc. makes you better in some way than another person. is the moment that you have stopped loving others and started loving self.

Because I am proud I think I am better than my children. My needs are greater than theirs. My current task is more important than theirs. not so say that I do not care a great deal for my children, but to be perfectly honest, the only reason I ever loose patience with my children, is because I put myself above them. (not a character trait I am proud of just being honest)

The Reality is that my children are my equals. I am a child of God, and so too are they. and while I have a stewardship to care for them while they grow into adults, and I have obligations to raise them unto God, They are in the Eternal nature my Younger Brothers & sisters and nothing less.

so too are all humans on this earth my spirit brothers & sisters. they are all my equals.  they are all co eternal with god, they all have the potential to become co-heirs with Christ.

Often I am so wrapped up in my own life that I can end up having a center of the universe sort of attitude. everything is my problem and the world revolves around me. I am in a hurry so everyone should move out of the way. I am angry so everyone should do whatever it takes to make my day better. Days like this are days when the very worst of me appear. and I am ashamed of it!

To bring me back into reality I like to contemplate the lives of those that I pass. as I drive to the store I count the number of houses along the way. and I try to imagine what is going on in the lives of the people who live there. This one probably just lost their job. that one probably lost a loved one. perhaps this one is struggling to have a family. perhaps this one is struggling through a divorce.

When I truly consider those around me I begin to have more love for them. I begin to consider how my actions could impact them. they are just as likely to be having the worst day of their life. and My actions could make their day better, or worse.

remembering also that each action has a butterfly effect on the world around me. consider if I am the 5th car at a traffic signal, and I choose to push the limits and run a yellow/red light and it causes the 4th car in the line to go next to not make it through the light, which puts that car just a few minutes later, those few minutes could be the difference between arriving on time at work. getting into an accident, or something as simple as that person being grumpy because he didn't make the light, and now his good mood switches to a bad mood, and  he yells at the teller at the bank and makes the teller's day bad, and the teller grumps at the next person in line who is having a really bad day and that sets them off so the drive away angry cutting off someone on the road. you can see how this could effect a million people literally because I choose to decide that my getting through the light was more important than anything else.

most often i think we do not even consider the repercussions of our actions. and the far reaching effects. if I run a red light and the chain reaction is that a person 10 or even 100 people down the chain decides to beat or kill someone is that my fault? well quite possibly.

a woman I knew once told me I was guilty of the sins of others that make choices based on my actions. and until recently i did not believe this. I always  felt like it is not my fault if someone decides to smoke just because they see me smoke. but the truth is. that I am responsible for ALL my actions and the consequences that come from them.

thinking on this. I think that the greatest problem is pride. when I am only concerned with myself and only worrying about my life, then I am putting myself above everyone else in the world. and that is pride.

but if I truly love my neighbor as myself. then I would be concerned about my actions and the effects they might have on the lives of those I interact with, even those that i don't knowingly interact with.

If I truly love others I would do not thing that would cause another stress or frustration, or would cause them to make bad choices because of my example.

the opposite of Pride is Love. I think that Pride is worse than Hate. because before I can hate someone I must think myself better than them.

Love is the greatest thing in the world.

Love is unselfish, Good tempered, wise, Guileless, Happy, Patient, kind, generous, humble, diligent sincere.
God is Love
therefore Be Love, and rid your life of Pride.


Pride in Other religions -

Islam - The disease of pride and arrogance deletes all traces of goodness and piety. This is the worst vice in causing havoc to Deen and a regrettable disease to have for the followers of this perfect and exalted religion. It launches a direct attack on beliefs and principles. If ignored and overlooked for sometime it becomes fatal and incurable, and gives rise to other spiritual maladies and vices, which are no less than four in number, as, mentioned below:

Jewish - Pride is, in the Jewish tradition, among the most serious of the vices, as humility is among the highest of the virtues
Buddhism - A clear distinction needs to be made between what people might call egotistical pride on the one hand and, on the other hand the self esteem and rejoicing in oneself (and others) that is intrinsic to a balanced, enlightened and self actualized being.... make those two meanings clearly distinct and use different terms for them, so that full, unqualified self esteem is never confused with problematical tendencies. This is what needs to replace all the culturally based and dark-force instigated stuff about humility and modesty. Let us stand our full height and tune into such a self view as "I am great, unique and beautiful - you are great, unique and beautiful too".

Bahai - According to Bahá'u'lláh, pride or self-centeredness is one of the greatest hindrances to spiritual progress. Pride represents an exaggerated sense of one's own importance in the universe and leads to an attitude of superiority over others.

Yogi -Again and again does pride, the tempter, come to bother us. Its existence is based upon the
delusion of separateness, which leads us to imagine that we have no connection with other
manifestations of life, and which causes us to feel a spirit of antagonism and unworthy rivalry
toward our fellow beings, instead of recognizing the fact that we are all parts of the One Life—
some far back struggling in the mire of the lower stages of the road—others traveling along the
same stage of the journey as ourselves—others still further advanced—but all on the way—all
being bits of the same great Life. Beware of Pride—this most subtle enemy of advancement—
and supplant it with the thought that we are all of the same origin—having the same destiny
before us— having the same road to travel—brothers and sisters all—all children of God

World Scripture - The correlate of ignorance about Absolute Reality is pride and the inordinate preoccupation with one's own self. Pride and egoism blind one to recognizing transcendent Reality, or even to taking an accurate measure of oneself. Because of pride, a person thinks he is independent and cannot recognize that his very existence is dependent upon Ultimate Reality. He is blind to his relationships to other people