pride vs. proud

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'm proud of you...

I've grown up in a family where compliments aren't exactly forthcoming... My dad is the talker just not sentimental while my mom is sentimental but rarely shares her feelings. I grew up desperately seeking their approval and always wondering whether I would ever measure up.

If there's a theory out there that too much encouragement or too many compliments would make a kid soft, my dad probably bought stock in it. While my classmates were paid for getting A's on their report cards, mine were just expected. My grandfather used to pay me for scoring goals until he passed away when I was 10, but that was probably the extent of rewarded behavior as a child.

I could go on for days on the effects of becoming a people pleaser, but instead I'm here to share my own "living vicariously through tv shows" moment compliments of "Friday Night Lights." I've read the book, watched the movie and hung onto the tv show despite the attempts to bury it.

I was catching up on the dvr the other day and watched the most recent episode "Right Hand of the Father." Vince, the high school quarterback, was reunited with his dad who had spent the last five years in jail and he wasn't too thrilled about it. He didn't trust his dad and told him not to even come to his game... but of course his dad showed up.  When Vince got home his dad had packed up and confessed he went and watched him play... “Tonight for the first time in my life I knew what pride felt like. I’m proud of you Vincent.”

Anyone who knows me knows I was a weepy mess at this point. I love the honesty and I especially love when a grown man can share his feelings... no matter how sentimental. I'm not sure what it is about those words... of knowing someone is proud of you... but it makes everything worthwhile. I'm praying I'll be able to tell my kids I'm proud of them (just enough to make them feel loved but not soft :) and I'm praying I'll find a man who can do the same.