What is Pride?

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Blackspur7

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Ok, so I understand Pride is like self worship and when you accomplish things and give yourself all the credit.
But say if I do any exam and I’m happy about myself passing can I both be happy for myself passing the exam if I also thank God for helping me to be my best or is by being happy of myself Pride? Like I usually find myself going I did it then smiling like a madman as I do not have lot’s of self confidence so it boosts my happiness levels is that Pride?

But for example I was talking too some of my friends they have quite crude conversations which I try to avoid being involved in or try to change the subject, and yesterday they said that I’m like their conscience only out of body, as a joke and then I replied “I’m the one with Morals” as a joke but that got me thinking is because I said that I have morals was that pride?
I was just saying that after their recent conversation about some rather crude things so was what I did pride or?

If anyone could answer my two questions here it would be greatly appreciated.

-Michael
 
I think it was in the statement itself, “I am the one with morals.” In patting yourself on the back, you may have caused others to feel bad about themselves?

Try to be just as happy that God chose to help you with the exams, as you are happy that you passed/did so well?
 
Philotheatoo said:
I think it was in the statement itself, “I am the one with morals.” In patting yourself on the back, you may have caused others to feel bad about themselves?

Try to be just as happy that God chose to help you with the exams, as you are happy that you passed/did so well?
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See This is what I meant is because we are all friends I said it in a joking sense and I think my friends realised this as we was jsut joking around, hence my friends callinng me their conseience and me saying that I have morals, it was only in a jokign sense and I think my friends realised that. By all means they have morals we was just saying it too each other in joking terms I don’t think it was serious
 
No, there was nothing wrong saying that. I’m not sure why people have problems to put their light on the chair when necessary. This is not pride but simply (hopefully) a fact. Just make sure that you always give the credit to G0d and not to yourself.
 
Blackspur7 said:
See This is what I meant is because we are all friends I said it in a joking sense and I think my friends realised this as we was jsut joking around, hence my friends callinng me their conseience and me saying that I have morals, it was only in a jokign sense and I think my friends realised that. By all means they have morals we was just saying it too each other in joking terms I don’t think it was serious
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well then, case solved 🙂
 
I think that it is good that you ask this question.

Pride is an inordinate self love. It is a disordered desire to promote oneself.
The thing that we need to recognize that there IS a properly ordered self love and that love of self is a necessary component of our life in Christ.
The two great commands are to Love God above all else and to Love our neighbor as ourselves. (Mt 22:36-40). So how can we properly love our neighbor if we do not properly love ourselves.

Being happy that you did well on a test, especially coupled with giving thanks to God, is certainly not disordered. As for you “morals” comment…given the context in which is was made I do not see that as being disordered either.

Maybe the best way to understand sinful pride is to consider the opposing virtue…humility.

In the context of humility, your comment about morals might be seen as “less than humble”…which certainly can be true…but again, one needs to take it within the larger context of who where and when. Since you describe it as occurring among friends, in a lighthearted “bantering” sort of way, they probably did not take offense or feel “put down” by your comment…and indeed, it was not your intent to “put down” anybody.

If you DO feel that, within the context and your self image, the comment DID spring from something prideful in you, then take this feeling as God’s nudge to you to take this lesson and learn from it. But don’t dwell on it either.
I have had such things happen to me pretty regularly over the years (foot in mouth disease…;)) and I’ve learned to just thank God for the “lesson learned” and to move on.

Hope this helps a little

Peace
James
 
I suppose there are two main sides to humility, both of which are about acknowledging truth. One side is to acknowledge your own sins and weaknesses. The other is to acknowledge all that is good in you, including any moral goodness, to be a gift of God.
 
I think the post by JRKH above is excellent.

I think it is not pride to allow ourselves to feel pleased in a job well done. But pride is to fail to acknowledge that any success that we have is owed entierly to God in the first place. We can both offer all glory to God, yet be happy that we have cooperated with His graces to achieve what He has set before us.
 
JRKH said:
I think that it is good that you ask this question.

Pride is an inordinate self love. It is a disordered desire to promote oneself.
The thing that we need to recognize that there IS a properly ordered self love and that love of self is a necessary component of our life in Christ.
The two great commands are to Love God above all else and to Love our neighbor as ourselves. (Mt 22:36-40). So how can we properly love our neighbor if we do not properly love ourselves.

Being happy that you did well on a test, especially coupled with giving thanks to God, is certainly not disordered. As for you “morals” comment…given the context in which is was made I do not see that as being disordered either.

Maybe the best way to understand sinful pride is to consider the opposing virtue…humility.

In the context of humility, your comment about morals might be seen as “less than humble”…which certainly can be true…but again, one needs to take it within the larger context of who where and when. Since you describe it as occurring among friends, in a lighthearted “bantering” sort of way, they probably did not take offense or feel “put down” by your comment…and indeed, it was not your intent to “put down” anybody.

If you DO feel that, within the context and your self image, the comment DID spring from something prideful in you, then take this feeling as God’s nudge to you to take this lesson and learn from it. But don’t dwell on it either.
I have had such things happen to me pretty regularly over the years (foot in mouth disease…;)) and I’ve learned to just thank God for the “lesson learned” and to move on.

Hope this helps a little

Peace
James
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Thank you for your structured answer, it has put my mind at rest i was thinking about this today and I asked my two friends if they took any offense and if they knew I was joking and they answered no offense was taken and they knew I was joking.
I usually don’t like to put people down, I’m the more quiet sort of person and more put myself down rather than lift myself up. For Example in quite a lot of instances I think the worst of myself rather than the best.
I have recently decided to delve deeper in my faith and learn some new things in which some sins and I have made some advances in leading away from immoral things and I am genuinely feeling happy with myself (In which I feel I have only been able to with God’s guidance) for leading away from temptation and I think it may have been a little bit out of pride. But thank you for your answer I have one question though should I take this too my priest and confess it though as I was not really sure as to what pride consisted of when I made the comment.
So should I take this to confession or take it from here and try in future not to made prideful comments.

Thank you for your answer.
 
Blackspur7 said:
Thank you for your structured answer, it has put my mind at rest i was thinking about this today and I asked my two friends if they took any offense and if they knew I was joking and they answered no offense was taken and they knew I was joking.
I usually don’t like to put people down, I’m the more quiet sort of person and more put myself down rather than lift myself up. For Example in quite a lot of instances I think the worst of myself rather than the best.
I have recently decided to delve deeper in my faith and learn some new things in which some sins and I have made some advances in leading away from immoral things and I am genuinely feeling happy with myself (In which I feel I have only been able to with God’s guidance) for leading away from temptation and I think it may have been a little bit out of pride. But thank you for your answer I have one question though should I take this too my priest and confess it though as I was not really sure as to what pride consisted of when I made the comment.
So should I take this to confession or take it from here and try in future not to made prideful comments.

Thank you for your answer.
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You are welcome and I am glad that my answer was of help to you.
As to taking it to confession…Since it was not mortal sin, you do not have to…but if you would like to get your confessor’s (name removed by moderator)ut on the matter then I would say go for it…especially since, as you say, you have been delving more deeply into the faith.

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
You are welcome and I am glad that my answer was of help to you.
As to taking it to confession…Since it was not mortal sin, you do not have to…but if you would like to get your confessor’s (name removed by moderator)ut on the matter then I would say go for it…especially since, as you say, you have been delving more deeply into the faith.

Peace
James
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Thank you yet again, as I am only 16 years old (A month today) and still have much to learn but as another user has said, with age and time come understanding and there I wouldn’t be stressing so much.
Yet again thank you for your patience and time.

-Michael
 
Blackspur7 said:
Ok, so I understand Pride is like self worship and when you accomplish things and give yourself all the credit.
But say if I do any exam and I’m happy about myself passing can I both be happy for myself passing the exam if I also thank God for helping me to be my best or is by being happy of myself Pride? Like I usually find myself going I did it then smiling like a madman as I do not have lot’s of self confidence so it boosts my happiness levels is that Pride?

But for example I was talking too some of my friends they have quite crude conversations which I try to avoid being involved in or try to change the subject, and yesterday they said that I’m like their conscience only out of body, as a joke and then I replied “I’m the one with Morals” as a joke but that got me thinking is because I said that I have morals was that pride?
I was just saying that after their recent conversation about some rather crude things so was what I did pride or?

If anyone could answer my two questions here it would be greatly appreciated.

-Michael
Click to expand...
The sin of pride due to language changes is better written as vainglory or hubris
 
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