This morning I feel a very strong need to focus on pride. Pride, when kept in check, can be a good thing. It allows you to step out in your gifts and talents and use them to improve the world. Beyond this, pride can be a trap that opens you up to dark entities.
Back when I was in college. I spent a few summers working as a tour guide at a historic site owned by my church known as the Kirtland Temple. It happened to be in my mother's hometown, and I had grown up loving the building. Not only was it the landmark I looked for when taking trips to my grandparents' house, but I loved going to the Christmas and Easter services that were still held there with my aunt, who was a very active church member there. When I found out I could spend summers leading people on tours through the building, I knew it was something I had to do.
Jeff Lundgren, along with his wife Alice, were volunteer tour guides who lived in one of the houses on the Temple property the first summer I worked in Kirtland. After initially not liking him (which I now know was my heart telling me to be cautious), I let my guard down when he made the statement, "I know we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but I hope that won't stop us from having a good working relationship." After that, I allowed his supposed knowledge of scripture and the opinions held by other tour guides and church members to cloud my judgment.
As I look back on the man Jeff was, I can feel the spirit of pride that bordered on arrogance. Jeff was very sure of himself. We was well-versed in the scriptures of my church and he was a master at putting them together in ways you had never heard before that actually made logical sense. Even though Jeff did not usually come right out and say "You need to listen to me because I know what I'm talking about", the pride he had in this knowledge said that. There was definitely something subtle in him that enjoyed the attention this ability brought, and he reveled in the knowledge he was well thought of enough to be followed.
And this is where the spirit of pride takes a turn for the worse. If this pride becomes something that desires to be followed, there is some darkness there. How do I know? I know because the heart does not tell you to follow another person. The heart counsels us to follow it to connection and purpose. Anything outside yourself that demands your attention to the point where you turn your power over to it is not a good thing.
There are many would be leaders who are calling for our attention. Those who expect us to follow with blind allegiance are ones we need to be especially cautious of. Ironically, they can sometimes share very powerful truths. We need to allow our hearts to tell us what those truths are and skip the rest.
Recognizing the spirit of pride will guide us around potential pitfalls. Your heart knows the way! Consult it first and it will tell you all things that you should do!
~CSE
Back when I was in college. I spent a few summers working as a tour guide at a historic site owned by my church known as the Kirtland Temple. It happened to be in my mother's hometown, and I had grown up loving the building. Not only was it the landmark I looked for when taking trips to my grandparents' house, but I loved going to the Christmas and Easter services that were still held there with my aunt, who was a very active church member there. When I found out I could spend summers leading people on tours through the building, I knew it was something I had to do.
Jeff Lundgren, along with his wife Alice, were volunteer tour guides who lived in one of the houses on the Temple property the first summer I worked in Kirtland. After initially not liking him (which I now know was my heart telling me to be cautious), I let my guard down when he made the statement, "I know we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but I hope that won't stop us from having a good working relationship." After that, I allowed his supposed knowledge of scripture and the opinions held by other tour guides and church members to cloud my judgment.
As I look back on the man Jeff was, I can feel the spirit of pride that bordered on arrogance. Jeff was very sure of himself. We was well-versed in the scriptures of my church and he was a master at putting them together in ways you had never heard before that actually made logical sense. Even though Jeff did not usually come right out and say "You need to listen to me because I know what I'm talking about", the pride he had in this knowledge said that. There was definitely something subtle in him that enjoyed the attention this ability brought, and he reveled in the knowledge he was well thought of enough to be followed.
And this is where the spirit of pride takes a turn for the worse. If this pride becomes something that desires to be followed, there is some darkness there. How do I know? I know because the heart does not tell you to follow another person. The heart counsels us to follow it to connection and purpose. Anything outside yourself that demands your attention to the point where you turn your power over to it is not a good thing.
There are many would be leaders who are calling for our attention. Those who expect us to follow with blind allegiance are ones we need to be especially cautious of. Ironically, they can sometimes share very powerful truths. We need to allow our hearts to tell us what those truths are and skip the rest.
Recognizing the spirit of pride will guide us around potential pitfalls. Your heart knows the way! Consult it first and it will tell you all things that you should do!
~CSE
I'm feeling this!
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