I think that I must be the only person in the world who either does or does not understand the correct definition of the word 'pride'. I mean, either I'm wrong, or the rest of the world is.
In the Bible we find that it is sinful to be 'puffed up with pride', and that 'pride goes before a great fall'. (I'm not the hand-holding type - if you want to know where those scriptures are, you can look them up yourself.)
In my opinion, pride is an emotion, a state of mind, like anger. If I feel angry, and have just cause to feel so, I don't see how experiencing that emotion can be sinful. If I let that emotion rule me, my actions will be sinful. But to feel anger is not sinful.
To feel proud, if you have just cause to feel so, is not sinful. But it seems to me that most people's sense of pride is, at best, misdirected, and at worst, wholly unwarranted.
I've heard many say they are 'proud to be an American'. Really? Unless you fought to get here, learned English as a second language, and put forth real effort to become an American, or served this country willingly to help preserve the ideals upon which it was supposedly founded, I just don't see how you can be 'proud' of the accident of your birth on American soil. You might just as well have been born in France or Poland, in which case you would now be prattling about being 'proud to be a Frenchman' or 'proud to be a Pole'.
How about 'proud of my ________ heritage' (insert applicable ethnic group name)? Oh yeah? I don't care what your ethnic background is, I promise you that at some point in human history, your forefathers have been guilty of crimes against humanity. Do you know your own history? Have you studied it? If there is much in the history of a people that inspires pride, there is much more that ought to likewise inspire shame.
I would like to say 'I am proud of my children', but to me that statement would indicate that I feel personally and wholly responsible for the people that they have become. I do not. I certainly played a role in shaping their lives, but by no means was I the only, or even the strongest, influence. They are not perfect. Some of their flaws resemble my own, and some are theirs alone. I see a bit of myself here and there, and sometimes it makes me smile, and sometimes cry. So what I really mean is not 'I am proud', but instead 'I am amazed and thankful for the people they have become, I have witnessed their struggles, celebrated their triumphs, mourned their failures, tried to give comfort and guidance where I could, and today I admire and respect who they are'.
To stand and fight to uphold a truth you believe in, of that you can be proud. To do the right thing, especially when it is the hard thing, of that you can be proud. To put aside your own comfort and wellbeing to minister to the unloved and unlovely, of that you can be proud. Only let your pride be a momentary indulgence. Do not indulge in the sort of pride that leads to boasting....that is where sin comes in. If you are carried away with boasting, you are distracted from doing, to the point where your pride becomes unjustified. Do not rest on your laurels. My mother used to say 'yesterday's scores do not win today's ballgames'.
