Pride

I'm currently reading a good book called Bathe Seven Times by Mother Nadine, founder of the Intercessors of the Lamb.  The title refers to Elisha the prophet, in the Old Testament, who asks Naman the leper to bathe seven times in the river and he will be healed.  There are seven deadly sins.  If we "bathe seven times" and become clean of each of these sins, we will be healed.

Last night I read the chapter on Pride.  What I found was a very helpful  and eye-opening explanation of the different types of pride.  Pride, apparently, can take many forms, some of them quite counter intuitive.

The following explanations are taken directly from the book.

• Pride of Intellect is an attachment to our own jugements, opinions and thoughts.
  
• Pride of Superiority can make us want to control the lives of others. 
  
• Pride of Ambition seeks positions of honor, recognition and praise for ourselves rather than for others and it shows up in the tiniest of ways.
• Pride of Sensitiveness is manifested in people who are super-sensitive, easily wounded and hurt.  It may hide in self-pity.
• Pride of Timidity is related to pride of sensitiveness and comes from an unreasonable fear of others' opinions of us and whether others have respect for us or not.
• Pride of Scrupulosity has a tendency to fix itself and its attention on the wrong things.  The things that really count go unattended.
• Pride of Vanity leads to perfectionism, legalism, complacency, hypocrisy and excessive talkativeness. 

Wow, that sort of cuts things down to size, doesn't it? I sure have a long way to go!! So many things stem from pride! It really is the root of all sin.