Can one’s pride have a negative influence on his or her marriage, absolutely it can. Pride is not always a bad thing, here is what Wikipedia says. “Pride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two common meanings. With a negative connotation, pride refers to an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris.”
“With a positive connotation, pride refers to a satisfied sense of attachment toward one's own or another's choices and actions, or toward a whole group of people, and is a product of praise”. “In contrast pride could also be defined as a disagreement with the truth.”
The last statement is where I would like to focus. Sometimes it is pretty simple pride, the kind that keeps men from watching “chick flicks” can be pretty common. Pride, like so many things, has a positive and a negative side. Most would say to be cautions against too much pride of self where your ego is over-inflated and you are convinced that you are supremely wonderful just because you are you.
Although your wife may say she is the luckiest woman alive does not mean that she should be burdened with treating you like royalty. Besides, treating someone like they were place here on this planet to solely cater to your every beck and call will very quickly diminish that “luckiest woman” frame of mind.
Pride is an insidious spiritual cancer. It lies at the root of all sin and self-centeredness, producing a profound darkness in the minds of those who tolerate it. Some forms of pride are obvious (at least when they occur in the lives of others). Arrogance, boasting, haughtiness and snobbery are all fairly easy to see.
Consequently, we tend to equate pride with such glaring manifestations. But there is another form of pride which is doubly dangerous; it is a pride which masquerades as humility. The essence of pride is self-centeredness. This can be clearly seen in the arrogant. "Look at everyone watching me. See them laugh at my jokes.
"I'll bet they envy my good taste in clothes, etc." An arrogant man has a high opinion of himself and seeks to be the center of his own universe at all times. We’re not talking about taking pride in your marriage or your work, which contains an element of humility, if healthy.
I am talking about the pride that does not allow you to be wrong and perceives any questioning as a challenge. As sister to pride is vanity. In this case, it is not difficult to know that vanity cannot have any positive connotation. Of course, it is very close in the meaning, but both states of mind are separated by a very specific difference that makes vanity unbearable.
Pride also has a biblical view as well, since we’re here let’s take a look all avenues. If we go back to the definition of pride, it can have both positive and negative connotation. Religion sees pride as a sin, because it is considered as being the sin that converted a cherub of God into Satan (or Lucifer). It is also one of the very first sin represented in the Genesis, while describing Eve eating the forbidden fruit.
When an emotion, pride is not necessarily very positive either. According to Augustine, pride is the love of one’s own excellence. And the very common trait that pride shows is the presence of negative thoughts about other people, and it also generates destructive comments about them.
Whereas, pride, with a philosopher point of view, is very positive. For instance, according to Nietzsche, without pride, people will remain subservient. This sounds very true. Being humble is a wonderful quality, but thinking that we cannot do better in our life, and being satisfied with what we have doesn’t take you anywhere further.
In this case, pride is becoming a quality, as long as not associated with hate towards other people. When you think about yourself with pride, it gives you more power and it enhances your greatness. You should be enhancing the greatness of your marriage. You should be enhancing each other’s good qualities.
Pride is a relationship-killer. Did you know that? It’s true. Pride will take your friendships, your marriage, and any other relationship you value, and tear them up into shreds. In its wake, pride will leave behind hurt, bitterness, destruction, and pain. Not a pretty picture, is it?
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