My youngest trotted out of Sunday school yesterday and showed me what she'd picked out of the prize box that day, a rubber wristband in red, white, and blue with the word PRIDE embossed in it.
"That's nice," I said, but something struck me funny about it. Isn't pride one of the seven deadly sins?
If she reached into the prize box again, would she pull out a different bracelet with a different word emblazoned on it? Can you imagine sending a 2nd grader home with a bracelet that read SLOTH or GREED or ENVY or even LUST?
At what point did we decide pride was not something that leads to destruction? I suspect it was sometime around my fourth grade year, when my teacher Pam (the first teacher who insisted we use her first name) had us sit in a circle on the floor with IALAC signs around our necks. IALAC, for those of you who missed school that day, stood for I AM LOVABLE AND CAPABLE.
PRIDE isn't the only sin that's taken a hit in the watering down department lately. Consider GLUTTONY. The more the better has been a big trend in America for generations. Gluttony seems to be a sin we revel in, even in churches. GREED has been recast as AMBITION, unless it's someone who's taking from us. You don't have to look very far back in Wall Street history to see where greed can lead in its extreme. It doesn't just hurt the people who are greedy, I'd say.
WRATH has been watered down, too, I think. I can't turn on the news without hearing 20 people say they're outraged. They don't look outraged, just annoyed, but the word sounds stronger and it sounds more newsworthy, so they use it. WRATH is the kind of anger that eats you from the inside and leaves you hollowed out of any joy.
The bracelet was a funny little reminder to reevaluate where I'm at in some of these areas, but my young'un is still wearing her bracelet with PRIDE.
2 comments:
What a powerful reminder! Thanks for sharing. Several of those struck home to me.
I am totally with you, Patty! I've been thinking the same thing about pride for a long time now, and in the last few years gluttony. Wrath and ambition, however, are new ones to me, but you are right on!! Thanks for your words of truth in the midst of a culture that takes many sins and says they're actually good. That is kind of hilarious-the story about your fourth grade teacher-and kind of sad. I guess a truthful activity would be an ICDATTC sign. (I Can do all thing through Christ Who Strengthens Me)
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