pride blinds us…

there’s another thing that causes us to disconnect from those we love and that’s pride.

margaret, my wife and i have discovered that pride rears its ugly head really about every time we get into conflict. when egos collide sparks fly.

there is an awesome verse over in proverbs, proverbs 13.10 (ncv), pride only leads to arguments. we all need to memorized that one don't we?

pride keeps us from hearing each other. when we’re prideful we think we know it all. “i don’t need to hear what you say! i’ll cut you off in the middle of a sentence. i’ll tell you what you’re saying. i’ll tell you what you’re thinking. i’ll tell you what you’re feeling. i’ll tell you what you ought to feel. you shouldn’t feel that way. you should feel the way i feel. you shouldn’t think that. you should think the way i think.”

pride keeps us from hearing each other. you think you know it all. you presume. you jump to conclusions when you’re full of pride.

pride makes us unteachable. “don’t confuse me with the facts. my mind is made up.” it makes us unteachable.

pride blinds us to our own faults. you’ve heard it said love is blind. love isn’t blind but pride is. pride blinds me to my own faults. it blinds me to the fact that sometimes i'm the whole problem. sometimes i'm part of it but sometimes i'm the whole problem.

JESUS once said to some people, before you go worrying about the speck of sawdust in your neighbor’s eye, get the telephone pole out of your own eye. your own pride is blinding you to your own faults.

pride causes us to refuse to reconcile when there’s been conflict. “i'm not making the first move! she’s got to make it.” you’re in different rooms, bedrooms, boardrooms or whatever. “i'm waiting for him to call me.

pride causes us to wait for the other person to take the initiative and it’s our own stubbornness that demands that the other person make the first move. call it what it is. it’s pride. it’s ego.

pride causes us to play games instead of admitting when we’re wrong. we play word games. we play psychological games and all kind of games instead of just saying, “you’re right. that was dumb. i shouldn’t have done it. please forgive me. i'm sorry. i was wrong.” rather than admit when we were wrong we play all kinds of games. we manipulate and we shade facts and we do this and that.

just a thought from the front porch…