All That AND a Bag of Chips

I'll never forget being with a group of students and hearing the phrase, "she thinks she's all that AND a bag of chips!" I just had to laugh. What a perfect way to describe someone so focused on themselves that they felt they were not just the complete package, but they were something extra! Now that is prideful!

Pride, however, is no laughing matter. There are many verses in the Bible about pride. In Proverbs 16:18, the verse reads, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. In Proverbs 11:2, the verse reads, When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

You see, when we focus too much on ourselves or on our accomplishments, we are not focused on the One who created us with the gifts and talents we have. It is sort of like focusing more on the gift, than on the Giver. There would be no gift without the Giver.

Not all pride is bad, though.  For example, how many parents are proud of their children when they take their first steps across the floor, and then, later, when they walk across a graduation stage? Or how many teachers are proud of their students at the end of a school year for all of their hard work? And let's not forget about how proud someone can be of themselves when they try to do something that they were afraid to do and, then, they accomplish it.

If we put a lot of time and effort into achieving something, it is alright to be proud of that effort. The danger comes when we become full of pride about our efforts or our accomplishments. When we put too much focus on what WE'VE done, it crosses over from being proud to being prideful. This takes the focus away from what HE'S done in us and for us.

The next time you start to feel your focus slipping, just remember the Giver.

Without Him, we are nothing. We are an incomplete package. With Him, we can be "all that" He created us to be...and more!

(Way better than a bag of chips, don't you think?)