Sneaky Pride

There are a lot of kinds of prides, there are the ones everybody knows about "I am too good to hang out with you" and there are the ones that are harder to spot and easier to pretend don't exist. These Sneaky Prides include "I am too sinful for God to be able to forgive me" and "Why should I do this job" and "She thinks she is so much better then me" and the sneakiest of all (in my opinion) the Humble Pride. This is not pride in Jesus, this is pride at how humble I am being and "look at this I am washing up after church without complaining, aren't I humble and helpful" This is one I struggle with a lot and I have noticed it more lately.

Jessica and I are beginning to learn Matthew chapter 6 which helpfully begins "Beware of doing your acts of righteousness before others that you may be seen by them, for then you will receive no reward from your father who is in heaven." This, I realized last night, means that the way to practice humility without pride is to do the unnoticed, thankless tasks without complaining or drawing attention to yourself. I have also found two other strategies to prevent prideful thoughts while I am serving, one is to sing to myself, the other is to share the job with another and make it an enjoyable and social occasion. Both of these strategies also prevent the "I am so hard done by" mentality.