Pride

Dakota is so proud of her dad. Brent is her hero and the only one that does things right in her eyes. This weekend she helped Brent organize the garage and here they are basking in their accomplishment. It is a great feeling when someone is proud of you, when their joy is just sitting next to you or being in the same room with you. Children are God's gift in that way. Just when everything you do as a parent is wrong, it takes a little one looking at you with that "proud" look to bring you to a place of encouragement. I have learned to hold onto those moments, they only last for such a short time. Pride is a self-centered feeling, it has no room for others in its moment. It is very temporary and impossible to feel consistantly. When we become obsessed with making others proud of us, common sense and God fall in the background. In pride there is room for no one else. It is a gift to be enjoyed as a moment needed, a boost of energy for the soul, but to crave it daily will leave one empty and frustrated.
Psalm 131:1-3
" Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
now and always."