At some point in my Christian life, I concluded that pride was the worst sin of all. After all, it caused Satan to rebel, Saul to lose the kingship and many others in the Scriptures who began well to make poor decisions wrecking their lives and the lives of others.

 In order to suppress the potential for pride to grow in my own life (since pride is a blind spot we fail to see in ourselves), I unconsciously determined to minimize or ignore any of my strengths. For example, if I negatively compared myself to someone, it was okay to dwell on my weaknesses; however, if I could do something better than others, I should not reflect on this but reminded myself there is still room for improvement. I resisted compliments and genuine praise from others did not penetrate.

So I was left with a tarnished image of myself and the person God created me to be. I wondered how could I change these ingrained patterns? My first step was to recognize this as sin. It doesn’t honor God to continually point out someone’s faults, including my own. I confessed and expressed to God a desire to turn from this wrong life style of self-condemnation to speaking God’s truth to myself.

• Stop being my own harshest critic.
• Be kind and tender-hearted to myself.
• Get out my compliment radar to take note what others appreciate  about me.

Psalm 139: 14 proclaims, “I am fearfully and WONDERFULLY made.” To acknowledge this in not pride but a step toward humility because I am letting God have the final word on my value.