New Year Resolution

The new year 2011 is now and 2010 is history, there's a lot that I haven't been able to grasp and achieve I will continue in this year and more new improvements will be soon implemented. Still there is an important part of me which I really have to improve which is my selfness and pride which always been a big problem for me to overcome.

Figure 1: Pride, one of the deadly 7 sins.

It will be challenging to overcome these humanly weakness, Pride is especially hard due to the fact that it is one of the 7 deadly sins. Pride is an inordinate love of the self, which results in super confidence as well as distorted self-esteem which ignores one's shortcomings. Pride exaggerates one's abilities and accomplishments while ignoring one's imperfections and failings.

In order to overcome pride requires humility. Humility is not false self-deprecation which is usually shown in a way of insulting yourself so others can say otherwise, rather it is recognizing that all gifts and talents come from God and acknowledging as such. Illustrated in a situation, if someone were to compliment your good singing voice, a prideful response would be, “You’re right, I do have an incredible voice, it’s about time you noticed it.” A self-deprecating response would be, “Oh, no, I can’t sing. My voice is terrible.” However, a humble answer would be, “Thank you. I’m grateful that God has blessed me with this voice and I’m glad I could share it with you.” Humbly giving God the credit He deserves is the antidote to pride.

Pride is a sin due to one's preoccupation with self, which is very fitting that the middle letter in the word is "i". Pride is all about me, myself and I, so the word pride is centered upon a letter "i" while the sin itself is also centered upon "I".

Another way to determine whether of pride preoccupies within self is to evaluate the motives, an example is my pursuit of knowledge. If I studied hard because that is what God wants me to do and that I'm obedient to Him, and it is God who empowers me, then that's good. Or if I study hard because I would like to help the society or teach and help others, that's good too. For the Love for others is there. However if I studied hard just for the sake of amassing knowledge for myself, just so that I can say that I know more than everyone else, I guess something is not right. For the focus is upon myself and my own glory.

Humility is a must, I must be able to control myself and never be controlled by pride, it brings me great sadness to know how much pride has caused me to fall and hurt others. I must be humble and this is a great challenge for me.

Figure 2: Carnation is also a beautiful flower which signifies pride.

Prayer is needed daily.