Pride Before the Fall
How many times have you looked at some one's possessions or actions or family and thought down on them. Have you ever caught yourself thinking something along the lines of being judgmental because you seemingly have better than someone else? I believe that we are all guilty of this.
At least I know I am, in more ways than one. It took a while before I realized two main things: 1- I'm not as great as I think (although I do have some pretty great qualities) and 2- I judged people a lot. I think that we sometimes rate our actions against the actions of others. Our way of life, SES (Socioeconomic Status) are all stacked and weighed against other people then we look at someone either looking down at them or maybe even looking up and feeling less than others. I think that we all in a sense judge people but it starts to become a problem (to me) when your judgments turn in to derogatory actions or tipping your nose down at that person.
So how can we deal with this? Well there are more than likely a few ways to deal with it but here's what I have began to do. the first thing is recognizing when I am pre-judging someone to the point of comparing myself to them. If you don't know you do it then you can't change it.. Then, I question, where is that coming from? After self-evaluating I try to go back into the situation or look at the person with a new set of eyes. Because here's the thing, If I look at who I am as a person, I'm sure that I'm not the best and everyone deserves a chance no matter the circumstance; whether it be a new friend, a new opportunity, or just meeting someone new who may not be a friend but someone new in my life in general. All in all, I've said all this to say don't stack your life progress chips against someone else, don't look down on someone unless you're helping them up (Yeah Yeah Cue the violin music for the Cliche movie line) because overall, we never really know a person's true situation or story and we can't judge based on assumptions and one-sided thinking.
Hopefully I've given you something to think about!
-XOXO: 'Riah
Awesome topic!
ReplyDeleteWhen God puts the qualities of pride and haughtiness in the abomination category it means he is giving all of us a very serious warning on this pride issue.
God is telling us clearly in a particular verse that the spirit of pride will come right before the fall – for example satan was in pride before his fall. He was kicked out of Heaven due to arrogance/pride. Pride is what will short circuit your blessings....you will become blind to what the real truth of a matter is.
Once pride starts to seep into someone’s personality to any significant degree – it has to be dealt with and neutralized with the help of the Holy Spirit. If it is not, then it will continue to grow and spread through that person’s personality and mindset.
From there, it will start to seep into their emotions, actions, and behaviors. Once this negative quality starts to manifest into their actions and behaviors, then their judgment will start to become cloudy
and once their sense of proper judgment starts to cloud up, they will no longer be able to separate truth from error.
The only truth they will be able to see is what they perceive the truth to be, not what God’s real truth is, or let alone what anyone else may try and tell them what is right.The pride of the body is a barrier against the gifts that purify the soul.
When the walls of pride are high and wide you can’t even begin to see over to the other side.....