Pride and explanations

So there was a great post on the Domestic Accident today. She talked about the media's intention to sensationalize the economic crises. She referred to a story that headlined and there are so many others like it. Men killing themselves over losing a house. I saw this headline yesterday and said to my dh how sad that it was that he would kill himself over losing a house. But it isnt just the house that he lost...he lost his pride and apparently that was worth killing himself over? I know that I am not that prideful but look at the history of America and especially the time of the Great Depression, during the market crash men threw them selves off of buildings downtown. It was pride.

How much pride do we really have...

Who can throw the most expensive birthday party for their kid?
Who drives the most expensive car?
Who has the most square foot in their home?

Now most people that I personally hang a round with are not like that, they dont attempt to keep up with the jones'. For the most part anyway or at least not in the excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars!

But yet they are still prideful, it is just in smaller numbers. If you dont have cable you feel like you need to apologize for it. If you dont have a somewhat new vehicle you explain why to everyone. If you dont go on a vacation and a friend does you feel the need to explain why you arent. Why is this? Pride.

We dont try to out do people neccesarily, we just show them we can do it just as well or here is our reason we dont... Always with the explanations. Why do we always feel the need to explain our situation. I personally always feel the need to explain my choices. I rarely can just say we decided blah, blah, blah and leave it at that. Now sometimes a choice basically requires an explanation or you want to give an explanation to describe something but generally the explaination job is to show why we made"x" choice so people will understand and agree with our choice.

Why when I have cable, do I not feel the need to explain my choice to a person without cable? I mean I dont go on and on about why I need to spend the extra money? Technically in truth they are making the better decision for whatever reason they are making it but I dont explain myself to them.

Now if a person is bragging that they dont have cable because of "x" reason I might feel compelled to explain why I do but its not always about pride, it might be about my repuation--I dont want this person to think i have cable for any reason other than Animal Planet and Fox News, or they will think I watch trash! Nope wait, that is pride too!

We all have pride, it is just a matter of how much pride.

But no matter what we own, no matter what choice we make or how much debt we are in (or how much debt we are NOT in)...we should not feel so much pride that we lose hope. We should know that there is nothing material we could ever lose or do without that is worth life.

Praying for my prideful heart today and for the families already in the midst of their own economical crises and that they find the hope of Jesus Christ.