Is having a little bit of pride okay?

[JD27076]

I always heard that having some pride was healthy. It raises your self esteem and confidence, but it is horrible to have too much pride.

Can anyone shed some light on this topic? Thank you.

 

[Mintaka]

These folks are talking about different kinds of pride, for which we only have one word in English.

Bad pride is “superbia”, feeling above (“super”) other people.

It can also lead to bad self-esteem, because a prideful person sometimes expects himself to be superhumanly perfect. So beating yourself up all the time can be done out of pride.

Good pride is God looking at His Creation and saying, “It is very good.” It is really appreciation and judging with justice, not pride.

Seeing yourself realistically, neither feeling above others nor beating up on yourself, is a form of humility. If something is good about you, you should appreciate it with that kind of humility.

Appreciating God’s gifts to you is especially important. Denigrating God’s gifts is ungrateful to Him. Critique your use of them justly, not pridefully one way or another.

 

[Scoobyshme]

I always heard that having some pride was healthy. It raises your self esteem and confidence, but it is horrible to have too much pride.

Can anyone shed some light on this topic? Thank you.

I would say, “Nah.”

Let’s put it this way. If I gave you a glass of sewerage with a spoonful of the finest wine mixed in, would you drink it? No way! Why? Because it’s still a glass of sewerage!

On the other hand, if I gave you a glass of the finest wine, with a spoonful of sewerage mixed in, would you drink it now? No way! Why? Because it’s still a glass of sewerage! Same reason!

The same applies to us and sin.

 

[sllhouette]

Corinthians 1:
“Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”

 

[Della]

Since all our gifts and talents come from God we have no need for pride of any sort. If we do a good job it’s God who enable us to do it. If we have ambitions to do better, it’s God wanting us to make the most of what he gave us.

Let’s take this tack instead and define humility. Humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves (denying our natural and spiritual gifts) but rather thinking of ourselves less. If we forget ourselves–whether or not we’re getting praised/thanked or whether or not we are gaining merits, but merely put all in God’s hands and do as he asks us, we will do very well indeed and have no need to be proud of anything except in the death and resurrection of the Lord.

 

[smorin1487]

The way I understand it… “foolish pride” is the sinful kind. To be too proud to admit your mistakes or wrongdoings, or to show your weaknesses, or thinking your better than others and judging. It can also be sinful to be too proud of your accomplishments, if you forget that all your accomplishments could not be so without the Father, Son and Holy Spirit there to give you the skills, environment, etc. etc. to have those accomplishments.

So be proud of what makes you great, it does indeed give you more self-esteem and any medical psychologist will tell you this. Just be sure to give thanks to God as well.

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

The term pride is tainted by modern usage, use vainglory which is “Inordinate pride in oneself or one’s achievements; excessive vanity.”

 

[Skygor]

Like most evil, Pride tries to disguise itself as something good. The thing you are looking for and what most people experience when they say Pride is really Joy.

 

[thistle]

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

PRIDE. An inordinate esteem of oneself. It is inordinate because it is contrary to the truth. It is essentially an act or disposition of the will desiring to be considered better than a person really is. Pride may be expressed in different ways: by taking personal credit for gifts or possessions, as if they had not been received from God; by glorying in achievements, as if they were not primarily the result of divine goodness and grace; by minimizing one’s defects or claiming qualities that are not actually possessed; by holding oneself superior to others or disdaining them because they lack what the proud person has; by magnifying the defects of others or dwelling on them. When pride is carried to the extent that a person is unwilling to acknowledge dependence on God and refuses to submit his or her will to God or lawful authority, it is a grave sin. The gravity arises from the fact that a person shows contempt for God or of those who take his place. Otherwise, pride is said to be imperfect and venially wrong.

While not all sins are pride, it can lead to all sorts of sins, notably presumption, ambition, vainglory, boasting, hypocrisy, strife, and disobedience. Pride strives for perverse excellence. It despises others and, depending on its perversity, even looks down upon God. The remedies for pride are a sincere knowledge of oneself, the acceptance of daily humiliations, avoidance of even the least self-complacency, humble acknowledgment of one’s faults, and prayerful communion with God.