Pride is an important aspect of manhood and Man is God's creation. Pride is similar with self-respect, but there's the pride that corrupts and there's the pride that keeps us in line. I have no idea what pride means for a woman, though. There must be something else that keeps a woman in line . . .I think pride becomes wrong only when we exceed certain limits (ie. lack of contentment -- going beyond what you needed -- asking for too much).
don't get me wrong, i completely understand what you mean, but to me, there is no pride that is "ok". we can boast about God, but no one really does that anymore. take me for instance, and bear with me, please! if my son gets straight A's at school, should i be proud of him? to me, no. because to me, all they teach in school are lies. math, science, etc. check this.
I Corinthians 1 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. to me, the wisdom of this world is foolish, nothing to be proud of. but knowledge of God, that i can boast about! but as i mentioned before, pride was our downfall to begin with, because we wanted to be like gods. i used to be proud, that was before God gave me a spanking i would never forget! but i learned.
Oh . . . by "spontaneity" I didn't mean "do what you like" but "to be natural in doing what you do."For example, if we're asked to be nice to each other, we shouldn't do it just because we're following rules or trying to impress someone. We should do it because that's what we'd naturally do. We do it because we want to do it and because we feel like doing it. ie. Spontaneous compassion and love.If love and compassion were things we did naturally and spontaneously, that would be the ideal. It would be like what happens in the natural world. A flower opens up when the right reason comes . . . A call of nature.
you make an excellent point, saltmeister! we must want to help that person, not force ourselves. that spells hypocracy!