Pride & Thanks

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the horrible nature and results of selfish pride.  God is SO clear in His warnings about and against it.  As a matter of fact, He cites it FIRST in the list of 7 things that He hates and dubs “an abomination unto Him.”  (Proverbs 6 : 16 – 19)

Among the many detrimental and devastating results of pride is the fact that it totally militates against thanks and thanksgiving.  Pride kills thankfulness before it has a chance to even germinate and sprout – much less, grow and produce.  In contrast, real humility – (not the false kind that is proud of how humble it is) – but rather, REAL humility is the warm, rich, black loam in which genuine thanks germinates, sprouts, grows, and produces with astonishing speed, health, and abundance!

A proud man is almost never a grateful man, for instead he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves, nor does he ever acknowledge that that which he has or does is actually made possible and provided by another, rather than himself.

I believe it was President Calvin Coolidge who first wrote, “Measured by the standards of men of their time, the Pilgrims were the humble of the earth.  Measured by later accomplishments, they were the mighty.  In appearance weak and persecuted they came – rejected, despised – an insignificant band; in reality strong and independent, a mighty host of whom the world was not worthy – destined to free mankind.”

This Thanksgiving season, I challenge you to measure the degrees on your “selfish pride meter.”  You may be amazed at how clearly, closely, and consistently they calibrate with the degrees on your “selfless thanks meter!”  Trust me, they will fluctuate and vary up or down – in nearly perfect, opposite, juxtaposed synchronization, to those of the other.