The Seven Deadly Sins and Your Marriage - Day 5

 

Pride is one of those tricky words.  There can be both a good side to pride and a desrtuctive side.  To be proud of someone else’s achievemnets or accomplishments can be a good thing.  There are many times I have been proud of my children.  In their growing up years, I took pride in their accomplishments and in their choices.  When I saw them work hard for something or to achieve a goal that stretched them, I was proud of them.  When they took seriously their faith and made hard decisions as a teenager that was consistent with that faith, I was proud of them.  Yet, on the other hand, pride can have a devestating affect on relationships.

One definition of pride is the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance.  I see it all the time in marriage relationships.  One person thinks they are better than the other, or that what they bring to the relationship  is more important than what their spouse brings, or because they bring in more of the family income than their spouse that they should have more say in how money is spent.  Pride can manifest itself in a myriad of ways in a marriage.  Most of them are destructive.

Let’s break this down a little bit.  A husband works hard and makes quite a bit of money.  He has risen up the ranks and has also received many accolades  from his peers.  People are always praising him.  He begins to feel pretty important and enjoys the attention.  At home he begins to expect the same reception. Pride takes over.  He is important and he thinks that his wife should treat him like other people do but she does not want a man to worship.  She wants a husband.  She wants a man of God that will be a servant leader.

What about the wife that is super mom.  She runs the house, takes care of the kids, and is active socially.  Everyone thinks she is great.  She loves the kind words and praise others pour on her.  She is special and her husband needs to put her on a pedestal just like everyone else.  Pride.  He is grateful for all she does but he wants his wife.  He wants the relationship they had before house, kids, and society.  He wants the wife back that wanted a marriage with God at the center - not her at the center.

I am vulnerable to the evils of pride and you probably are too but I believe the real issue with pride is that I put myself where God is supposed to be.  That will not work.  It does not work in life in general and it definitely will not work in a marriage.  Marriage is designed to be a symbiotic relationship - two people working side by side with each indispensable to the life and well being of the other.  That is God’s design.  That is God’s plan.  Pride?  It just does not fit into an Awesome Marriage.

Dr. Kim