What is the difference between pride and proud? I'm no linguist, but the most obvious difference is pride is considered a noun while proud is an adjective. It struck me when I was blogging earlier that pride is more often put in a negative context while proud is typically more positive. Of course they can be both be put into sentences implying positive or negative, but just thinking about patterns.
I wrote an entire blog about wanting someone to say they were proud of me... but yet you can read tons of references of people suggesting pride is bad. I suppose part of it is the level of pride and then the other part is who the pride is directed toward. It's rare to hear someone is too prideful in their friends, but maybe too often we hear someone is too prideful about themselves.
One of the stories I love is Uzziah from 2 Chronicles 26 in the bible. Uzziah was made king when he was just 16 years old and "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success." Sweet set up eh? Uzziah did the right thing, sought out God and he was successful. Unfortunately Uzziah's army grew and he became famous and powerful. "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." Uzziah stopped relying on God and he even ignored some priests' admonishment before eventually contracting leprosy.
I want to be proud of the people around me, but not too proud of myself. I want to even be proud of myself, but too proud. Here's to finding the balance within pride and proud as we look to find the success of Uzziah without the fall.
I wrote an entire blog about wanting someone to say they were proud of me... but yet you can read tons of references of people suggesting pride is bad. I suppose part of it is the level of pride and then the other part is who the pride is directed toward. It's rare to hear someone is too prideful in their friends, but maybe too often we hear someone is too prideful about themselves.
One of the stories I love is Uzziah from 2 Chronicles 26 in the bible. Uzziah was made king when he was just 16 years old and "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success." Sweet set up eh? Uzziah did the right thing, sought out God and he was successful. Unfortunately Uzziah's army grew and he became famous and powerful. "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." Uzziah stopped relying on God and he even ignored some priests' admonishment before eventually contracting leprosy.
I want to be proud of the people around me, but not too proud of myself. I want to even be proud of myself, but too proud. Here's to finding the balance within pride and proud as we look to find the success of Uzziah without the fall.
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