A man marries a beautiful woman. Employees obey their boss’s instructions. A money manager successfully grows wealth for himself and his clients. All is well in the world, right? Life is good.

Over time, the husband and wife age, and physical beauty fades. The boss loses his position and is demoted. The money manager hits a rough spot in the economy and losses money. Now is when you discover the true motivations behind what they had. Were they motivated by pride to have the most beautiful spouse, have the respected company title, or gain the most wealth? Or were they driven by love, leadership, and helping others manage their money. They all now are at a moment of truth when we find out.

When you are driven by pride, and the things you were prideful about start to slip away, your behavior will reveal your true character. For the husband and wife, will he continue to love her as they age, or leave her to once again chase beauty? For the boss that lost his position, will workers continue to respect who he is regardless of his position, or was his respect only driven by his title and power over them? Will the wealth manager deal with the losses with honesty and integrity with himself and his clients, or will he try to cover up the losses for the prideful behavior of looking wealthy and successful (maybe why Ponzi schemes have emerged in recent years).

So where is that line between working hard for what you have, and being motivated by pride? I believe it is reflected in your character. Are you thankful for what you have, or do you think you are the only reason it happened? Are you boastful about what you have, and think it reflects how people should think about you as a person? Do you lead with humility and confidence, or do you lead with arrogance and self-righteousness? So it is your character and motivation that makes the difference. You can see where I am going with this.

Name the 7 deadly sins. This are behaviors where humans can fall short of behavior that glorifies God. Here they are: wrath, greed, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony, and pride. So what is pride on the list? Sinful pride is refusing to recognize God’s sovereign role in everything. “Good pride” is recognizing that apart from God, you can do nothing (John 15:5), and, therefore, giving God the glory for the things that you accomplish.

Is being humble and having humility mean you are weak? Having humility is actually the key toward empathy toward others and being able to understand where they are. Maybe they are not beautiful, or wealthy, or have that high paying job for instance. If you understand them, you will always be thankful to something greater than yourself for whatever you have. In addition to that, being humble will give you respect and special power when working with others that pride will never get you. For example, I used to help manage a McDonalds restaurant when I was younger, and I was a “roll up your sleeves and pitch in with everyone when in a crisis” manager. Other managers just commanded others. I noticed that people would work twice as hard for me as when they worked for them. They knew I understood how hard the work was, and I was there for them. A very good lesson for me early in my life. Having humility does not mean you are weak or lack confidence in what you do. It does mean you are thankful for what you have, and others will respect you for how you treat them, regardless of their beauty, job, wealth, etc. Pop culture may not tell you, but leading with humility is attractive to people.