 7 Deadly Sins & 7 Life Giving Virtures Christian thought and
practice has always regarded humility as the fundamental virtue serving
as the foundation of the whole edifice of Christian virtue. Humility is truth in
self-understanding. This is the heart of the matter. This
is where humility is shown as the direct opposite of pride. It
means that we have a genuine awareness of our human condition as
creatures of God. It means that we are happily convinced of this
most basic truth about ourselves: that God is the Creator and the
Source of our life and our gifts. "The God who made the
world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not
dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human
hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to
everyone life and breath and everything...'In him we live and move and
have our being...'"(Acts 17:24-25, 28) The most basic truth
about ourselves is that every gift and talent we have comes to us from
the creative hand of God. Truth in self-knowledge asks only that
we remember this. Humility does not demand that we deny our
goodness, our gifts, our talents. It demands only that we
acknowledge where they came from. Unfortunately, the word
pride is often used to describe persons who have a positive sense of
their dignity and worth or a pleased satisfaction in their gifts and
achievements. Used in this sense, pride is certainly not
sinful. It is a kind of heresy to think that true self-love is
necessarily motivated by pride. We must make a sharp
distinction between true self-love and exaggerated
self-centeredness. True self-love means that we believe and
accept a profound truth about ourselves: namely that we are made in the
image and likeness of God, are profoundly loved by God, and lavishly
gifted by God. We can love ourselves not for false reasons but
for the best of all reasons. Provided we recognize that our
goodness comes from God, we are practicing humility in acknowledging it. -thoughts taken from Choosing Virtue in a Changing World: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins Please Email Us With Any Comments or Feedback At ©2005 CopperCountry.com,Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. |
