A triad of people in the past week have all talked with me about what they're learning about themselves with the help of things like the Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, Strengths Finder, etc. One of my friends referred me to a couple of books - The Road Back to You by Ian Cron and The Complete Enneagram by Beatrice Chestnut. I haven’t read all of them yet, but in the bit I did read there were many things I thought quite profound. I will mention two.
The first is a quote by John Calvin: Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. This just confirmed what I thought on some level, that it's worthwhile to gain knowledge about yourself. I'm sure there is some vanity involved, but throughout my life the more I've learned about myself and had others' input, I've become more of who I'm meant to be.
The second was that with every type, there is usually a corresponding deadly sin.
Type 2 = pride.
Seven Subtle Symptoms of Pride
41 Evidences of Pride
I guess I’ve always known to a degree that I’m prideful, but I don’t know if I ever really considered it to be much of a problem. It’s a problem! It has the potential to kill.
Confession of pride signals the beginning of the end for pride. It indicates the war is already being waged. For only when the Spirit of God is moving, already humbling us, can we remove the lenses of pride from our eyes and see ourselves clearly, identifying the sickness and seeking the cure.
I confess I am prideful. I see many of the things in my life that I have been “working on” - they all stem from pride. It's caused me to step back and try to understand what not being prideful looks like. It's harder than I realized. I think seeking for/granting forgiveness is one big piece I'm missing.
If you happen to know of resources on how someone can overcome pride, send them my way!
