Thorn

Pride is not just "better than" it's also "less than"...either way our eyes are fixed on ourselves rather than on God.

So do not make any premature judgments...for He will both bring to light the secret things that are now hidden in darkness and disclose and expose the secret aims (motives and purposes) of hearts. Then every man will receive his due commendation from God 1 Corinthians 4:5. We do not rival the apostles in our accomplishments for God, but we all have things we do for Him. It’s then that we must be “glory deflectors,” making sure God gets all the glory for everything we have done.

I always thought that pride was just being overly confident and cocky, but there is a flip side to the coin of pride and ego. Struggling with self-image and self-love, always fighting the "you're not good enough" voices in my head, is just as prideful. It come in the form of feeling less than too. Humility is being right sized, seeing ourselves through God's eyes. If we are constantly beating ourselves up, feeling "not good enough" and unworthy or less than, we are still focusing on ourselves and comparing to others. We don't see that by feeling less than we are actually practicing pride in our hearts. Caring about ourselves more than we care for others-whether by means of feeling better than others or less than others.
"We care for ourselves so much that when we don’t measure up to either our own expectations or those of others, we can become very unhappy with others and even angry with ourselves. What we sometimes miss, however, is that the only reason we are dissatisfied with our appearance or discouraged by our failures is that we naturally care about ourselves. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t care what we looked like. We wouldn’t care whatothers thought of us. We wouldn’t care time with the image we see in the mirror. If we didn’t already love ourselves, we wouldn’t care whether or not we felt good about ourselves."

We're not, putting ourselves in a league with those who boast that they're our superiors. We wouldn't dare do that. But in all this comparing and grading and competing, they miss the point....We're not barging in on the rightful work of others, interfering with their ministries, demanding a place in the sun with them. What we're hoping for is that as your lives grow in faith, you'll play a part within our expanding work. And we'll all still be within the limits God sets as we proclaim the Message in countries beyond...But we have no intention of moving in on what others have done and taking credit for it. "If you want to claim credit, claim it for God." What you say about yourself means nothing in God's work. It's what God says about you that makes the difference. 2 Corinthians 10:12,18

Not that we have the audacity to even compare ourselves with some who exalt and create testimonials for themselves! However, when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely. We, on the other hand, will not boast beyond our legitimate province, but will keep within the limits [of our commission which] God has allotted us as our measuring line...For we are not overstepping the limits of our province and stretching beyond our ability to reach...We do not boast therefore, beyond our proper limit, over other men's labors, but we have the hope and confident expectation that as your faith continues to grow, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, still within the limits of our commission, So that [we may even] preach in lands [lying] beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another [man's] sphere. However, let him who boasts and glories boast and glory in the Lord. For [it is] not [the man] who praises and commends himself who is approved and accepted, but it is the person whom the Lord accredits and commends. 2 Corinthians 10:12-18