Pride, is it really that important?

I was reading lynette's entry on the zion joy blog page, I would say its pretty good, she gave a thorough covering about pride. Haha lynette if you are reading this, good job done!!!

We are humans, and it is now in our natural human nature to think that we are always right, and thats the sad thing, cause i guess we are so stuck in our viewpoints and blinded by our perspectives that we refuse to see what others are coming from. Hey, no joke, i'm one of them too =)

There was something inspirational that this guitarist(cant remember his name...) from Chris Bowater's worship team says, which one is more important? Being right or being reconciled?

Being right, thats what everyone is trying to prove, to be able to see things from their perspective, and claim that it only is the sole truth =) Unfortunately in the process, they purposely or unintentionally shot down their friends, putting the sake of knowledge over the price of friendship. And to the most unfortunate truth, sometimes, they ain't that right as what they claim they are. Upon realisation of their mistakes, they lost a good friend =)

And even after they realised their mistake, they refused to acknowledge that they are wrong, all just for the sake of saving face. They decide that their face is worth 10 times more than anything in their life, the rest dun matter. And I just guess thats why many good relationships turn sour too.

Well, I cant comment or criticise or judge, cause I'm one of those people, and even now, I'm struggling to hit perfection in Christ, not to judge my fellow brother or sister, but to acknowledge that he or she is indeed worth many times in the eyes of god as i'm worth. And that I know Christ starts the standard by being humble first, he washed the feet of his disciples, being the servant king. We who are of his discipleship, what are we supposed to do?

And maybe I can share with you some practical steps that I took to accomplish this

1. When someone accuses you, before you retaliate, check first, what is he/she trying to say, understand things from his/her viewpoints, and why he/she is saying this(current mental state), and of course to really take his/her words into your heart as an improvement to yourself, even if he or she is wrong, gently correct him/her.

2. Before we start to accuse others of their faults, lets look deep inside ourselves for once, before we want to say the words out, shall we look at ourselves first. Am I perfect in what I do? I make mistakes too, how should I speak it out to my brother or sister so that I will not hurt his or her feelings? How i would approach this would be to share with my fellow brother or sister my problem, and I will ask him or her for help, so even if I dun say it out, we can work together to solve the problem =)

3. Jesus gave the commandment, Love one another just as I have loved you, Love is explained in 1 corinthians 13. Are we gentle in our manner of speech(are we harsh in our intonation, do we care how our words affect them?), are our words kind when we correct our brother(do we encourage them with positive/constructive criticism rather than just pointing their faults)

4. Though sometimes, it is often meted out that "tough love" is needed at times, but I think as friends and brothers and sisters, we should only use this as a last resort, when all else really fails, and even before we should even use this tough love, have we asked god, is tough love really the best out in this situation?


Brothers and sisters, I hope you find this entry meaningful, god bless you all

In his love and mine =)