Thursday, March 3, 2011

What does Pride look like and is it killing you?

Pride was one of the major reason that kept me from living the dream God has placed on me on many different levels.  I could never figure out why  certain things kept showing up in my life. Why I couldn't get out of the hole that I was in. It just seemed like it was getting deeper and deeper. Saying you have a dream,  takes more than just waking up and saying I have a dream!  We all have dreams of living a better life but lets face it most of us are not willing to do the work on ourselves.  We would rather complain, blame everyone else, hold grudges or surround ourselves with people who will tell us what we want to hear.  (Those people are telling you what you want to hear because they don't want you to change. They want you to stay the same so they have someone to hang out with!  They don't want you to become better because it will make them feel uncomfortable with themselves. This doesn't just go on in the world, it goes on in the church as well.) 
 Once you realize what Pride is, what it looks like and break free from it, you will see your life change.  God has been working diligently on me these last few years.  It seemed like once one life lesson was learned he had five more waiting in line!  Seriously, I was feeling like I was schizoprhatic at times.  I heard one of my mentors say, "God is trying to refine you, so you won't destroy you."  It is so true! How  awesome is that when you think about it!  He has a huge plan for your life, if you let him do the work on you.  He doesn't want to see you get hurt or burned anymore!

I know many people who have huge dreams and want to do make every second of their life count, but they keep making the same stupid mistakes.  Most of what is holding you back from financial freedom, successful marriage, better relationship with your kids, going after a dream of yours, is PRIDE!

Trust me the reason I can write about this, is because I was very prideful. Just in my every day life there was pride. I cared more about what others thought of me than I did my husband, my kids and most importantly God.  I wanted to be accepted and was looking for approval from man.  (FYI: God already loves you and you are already accepted just the way you are.)  I had to have the latest phone so people thought I was cool, I had to go and spend top dollar on my hair so I could look good,( I couldn't go somewhere and not have my makeup or hair done.  What if someone would see me.  If you want to see if there is any pride in your heart, ask yourself if you could go out in public with no makeup and hair a mess? I think it is important to look good and take care of yourself, but if is to try to impress others, then there is a problem.)  I had to get my nails done, spend money on clothes for the kids and myself that we really didn't need, drive a new car, live in a certain neighbor hood and the list can go on and on.  I wanted others to think I was successful! Yes, Mark made some great money, but it was never enough and we spent more than we had.  Why, because we were caught up in what the world says success looks like!  Maybe we looked like we had it all going on from the outside, but inside was a different story. 

Pride even kept me from stepping out and doing what God has placed on my heart.  What if nobody likes me?  What if I offend someone by what I say?  What if nobody ever buys my book ( BTW the book will be done sooner now than later), what if nobody comes to hear me speak? Take this blog, for an example. If you only knew the head game that went inside my head!  I knew once I starting writing, there would be many people out there laughing and making fun of me!  Guess what, I don't fear man instead I fear God! His opinion is much more important to me than any persons will ever be! So, if you have similar questions going on in your head then you need to ask yourself what and who are you really doing it for? 

I can write on and on about pride, which I will share a few more blogs on in the next couple of weeks.  But if pride is something God is trying to work on you with, just know it is only because he loves you.  The last thing you want to do is get in more debt, or become debt free and get back in debt because you haven't learned the lessons, put in years in your marriage to have your marriage fail,(which BTW marriage takes two. If your spouse isn't willing to work with you and together or your marriage has ended in divorce, just make sure you learn the life lessons so you don't repeat it in your next relationship or pass it down to your children.) or never live with peace, love and joy in your life.  It will take looking at yourself deeper and not caring about the 98% of the population is doing, unless you like being miserable and broke! 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Kim. What you said regarding pride is so good and so true!

Years ago, a wise older woman friend of mine showed me where I was being prideful. In a particular situation, for instance, where I was innocently trying to "help a person," she showed me that I was actually trying to "fix them" - and against their wanting to be fixed I might add!

What I learned is that people who need fixing (including ourselves of course. LOL) pretty much already know it! Us pointing it out appears as though we think we’re better than them and that they’re not good enough. The best thing we can do is love on people (including loving ourselves) until THEY (we) see the light on their (our) own.

Pride is tricky in that it stays hidden in our intentions unless we search it out in order to rid it from our character. Since the dreaded fall DOES come as a result of pride, it would behoove us all to eradicate pride in order to live a prosperous and peaceful life.

Thanks for that reminder!

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