Be not proud in any dealings.
November 26, 2023
Pride sets up a wall between two people. Be not proud in any dealings. Never be motivated out of pride or stymied by pride. It is the most frequent element which hinders a clear and honest response, but there are many others: insecurity, anger, jealousy, resentment, feelings of inferiority, feelings of superiority, impatience. The list could go on, but at the head of this list is pride.
If you want to know how best to respond, eliminate pride first. You will have gone far in your openness to help and be helped. Having tackled pride, you can move on. You certainly know of those whom you have offered to help who have responded negatively. If you think upon the incident, you will probably recognize pride. How often have you said, “That person was too proud to receive help.” You say also, “How painful to see someone so proud being reduced to asking for help.” It is true, the reaction is there, yet by responding this way (“so-and-so was too proud and now it is so tragic”), you are placing pride on a pedestal as if it were an important criterion in measuring an individual’s worth. You then are as guilty as the individual in the valuation of pride.