Hi Lost and Found,
In regards to "being overly proud," One thing that helped me is the comment Ray made that by the Grace of God we can be thankful that We are not a Murderer, Child Molester, Adolph Hitler, Mussolini or a Hypocritical Religious leader. Even in areas where we have a talent or ability, We should always ask ourselves the question: " What is the source of this ability or even a success ? Some might say it's the ideal environment, good genetics and support from Family and peers, but the real source is God who causes everything to be what it is. The CAUSES are set in motion that lead to the choices and the eventual realities that become Our lives, that includes an understanding of these Truths. I've discussed these Truths with interested ones from outside the Forum who respond that they like what there hearing and believe it all makes good sense, but are unable to whole heartedly embrace these Truths at this time due to a number of CAUSES. Apparently God isn't ready for them to do so. I can't speak for everyone, but I do know that every time I'm proud about something I did, usually shortly afterwards I receive a Humbling. "Let He or She who thinks that they are standing beware that they do not fall;" And "Pride is before a crash and a Haughty spirit is before a stumbling." These thoughts surface in my Mind prior to thinking I'm someone special in regards to My understanding or any ability for that matter.
Some excerpts of Ray's Repentance Guilty of All paper(It helps in maintaining Humility) Read Below
The only reason we haven’t literally molested little children and cut their head off, is because GOD PREVENTS IT! One scripture says God frames evil, you know what it is when you put a frame around something, you know frame it. He frames evil, so it won’t go totally out of control. What appears to be out of control today in the world, is actually framed. God knows how far it’s going. Nothing is out of control.
So don’t take credit for the fact that you didn’t molest children and kill them. You weren’t lead down that evil alley, you weren’t born into the family that would cause you to go down that alley. You weren’t always frustrated to the point where you were just hell bent on just doing some evil, foul thing like that. God prevented it.
God makes vessels of honor and dishonor. He makes vessels of dishonor and then has mercy on the other vessels. Some He hardens and some He has mercy on. He has had mercy on everybody in this room. If you have never killed anybody or molested children or done any of these horrendous things. He has great mercy on your life. Now we need to be thankful for that and not assume we don’t have very much to repent of. We have to repent of what? "O man," that’s what we have to repent of.
Whatever "O man" is. That’s what we are, because "O man" is Adam. "O man" came out of Adam. Where did you come from, some place else? We’re all out of Adam. And what does Adam do? "Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters" and on and on. Wow, this is "O man" out of Adam. This is what he does and only by the grace of God, some of us didn’t have to go that route.
Some of the above quotes have helped me with pride.
Kind Regards, Samson.