Day 7 - Pride

I like naps.  During fasts you need them.  Win for me.

Physically speaking.  Days 7 and 8 are when you normally start.....to regaining a little energy.  I did feel a little better today but still needed one of those siestas around 2pm.

Sleep is still erratic.  Couldn't fall asleep until 3 last night.  Maybe this was by God's design because I was able to spend a lot of time thanking him.

4:00pm weight in 205.5 lbs

My tongue tastes like metal.

Pride is an interesting word.  It can be a  good or bad thing. Wikipedia says, Pride is either a high sense of one's personal status or ego or the specific mostly positive emotion that is a product of praise or independent self-reflection.  We usually associate the first definition with the Biblical understanding.  

Benjamin Franklin once said, "In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.  Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive,


As far as the first definitions I think this is pretty true.


But the second definition is good too, isn't it?  I am proud to be a child of God.  There is nothing wrong with that is there?


The problem is we often use words differently that they did way back in Biblical times.  Instead of saying, "I am proud to be a child of God.", they would express their thankfulness to be a child of God.  e.g. the sentiment of Psalm 8.  Maybe we should try to conform our vernacular accordingly.  Maybe, we should simply say we are thankful for things instead of being 'proud' of them all the time.  Why?  You can say, "I'm so proud of my children" all too easily without any regard for the fact that God gave them to you in the first place.  Saying you are so thankful for them makes it extremely difficult to forget God because, after all, who are you thankful to?  I know it hard to change so If we do tell our children how proud we are of them lets just make sure we say it in the right WAY; with gratitude to our Father who blesses us with them.


Ben was right about pride.  Its a tricky little stinker.  I hope I don't become proud in the practice of my spiritual disciplines...... but thankful.