Right Pride

"Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power."
-Ephesians 6:10

The last time I went to Confession and the priest helped me make a better examination of conscience, one of his questions to me after I shared the sins I could recall was whether I had a problem with pride. Some of the other questions he posed I answered with a simple, "No." But with this question, I added, "No, but I make a conscious effort to keep that in check because I am good at a lot of things, but I know all good things come from God, so my confidence lies in Him."

The priest responded with, "Praise God."

The fine line between sinful pride and healthy confidence doesn't lie so much in the amount of self-esteem a person has, but where that self-esteem comes from. If you think you can do anything because you're all that and then some, you're wrong (sinful pride). If your faith tells you that you can do anything because all things are possible with God, you're right (healthy confidence). God will help you do anything to accomplish his plans. If your plans are different than his, like if you want to play for the Celtics in Boston instead of teaching 7th grade math, you probably won't get to take the easy road and play for the Celtics, but he'll give you an even more amazing experience in a small classroom in the Plum suburbs of Pittsburgh.

Of course, a lot of you are anxious to read my book when it comes out, but the road to publication could take three or more years for one like this. We are trying to drum up as much buzz about it this month as we can by getting as many reads at http://www.scribd.com/doc/50323329/Chapter-14-Praying-for-the-Dead by the end of this month. So you can go there now and I hope to see you back here again. God bless you.