The First Step to Recovery = Admit You Have a Problem

Yup, we've all got problems we oughta admit...
Pride is a sticky subject. Sticky like a Venus Fly Trap plant. It seems sweet at the time, but then before you know it you find yourself trapped. It's still sweet inside the plant as it begins to slowly digest you. But the fact remains that you are indeed trapped and you are indeed being digested.

The really irritating thing about pride is that it is entirely possible to be prideful about your humility. (Ironic, I know.) But then that must not be truuuue humility if you can be prideful about it. However, I think it remains a temptation.

Pride comes from lies. After all, who do you think you are?

Consider for a moment the lovely, pretty girl who spends time trying to be "humble" about her looks but is doing it by telling herself or making herself believe that she is not as pretty as she is. As a girl, I know what that's like. "I shouldn't be self-centered". True. And "Beauty isn't something that should be flaunted". Also true. But somehow that is easily twisted into "No, I'm not pretty" whenever she gets a compliment. Yet something in her still swells at the attention. Maybe that is not blatant pride, but it is false humility. False because if she's pretty, saying she isn't is a lie.
(Going sliiiightly off topic for a second here...Please bear with me.)
Aaaah, but who decides who or what is pretty or not? There lies the question. There also lies other important things to consider when dealing with pride. It is: According to whose standards are we caomparing?
There are two standards as options:
God's or the World's.

Still on the topic of this girl and her thoughts (don't worry, we'll be moving on shortly), it is a unfulfiling and can be sinful when she is using worldly standards to find her beauty to be of worth. On the contrary, God has different standards, and His standards express His thoughts on beauty (skin and heart beauty). And since God created everything, He is the owner, patented, copyrighted, and approved. He is the ultimate authority, HIS thoughts/standards are the only ones that ought to matter. And he is not opinionless.

(Back on original track)
As I pondered the rampant pride issue, some signs of its existence grew apparent to me. Here are some that I came up with.You may need to deal with some pride problems if:
You can't ask for help from someone.
You can't admit it when you are wrong.
You tend to think your way is right, and that it's stupid if someone tries something differently than they way you do it. As if you have it all together.
You hate yourself. (Self-loathing. This might not make sense when you first think about it. But, really, if you are sitting around thinking "I hate myself. Everything is horrible. My life sucks." You are basically saying "I should be pitied. How dare someone not care or respect me." And I think the low feelings may be damaged pride. But if your pride is damaged, it's still there.)

So why are these things a problem? Well, to be quite frank, pride is basically self-seeking. A person who is a little high on the pride scale is looking to glorify themselves. But one day "EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue confess" that Jesus is Lord and the only one worthy of glory. You can bend those knees today or you can wait, be stiff-necked, and be forced to your knees later when you are all eaten up by your own pride digesting you. Then you will realize that God is the only one worthy of glory and that you have wasted your life making it about you.

Do YOU think it's a problem? (If yes, please read on.)

So, how do you combat this hideous pride? I came up with the following list of questions to help you swallow the fact that you are but man, and God is God.
Humbling things to think on:
Did you make yourself? Did you come up with the whole idea of giving yourself life? Do you have anyone to thank for the life that you're living? Can you speak words and have the become physical things like God spoke the world into motion? Do you honestly believe that it could be possible for you to run your life flawlessly by yourself? What do you have that you can be proud of? How awesome do you think you are?

I want to encourage you to look into God's Word. The bible is like a mirror. When you look into it, God shows you yourself[A] and also shows you how He wants things to be[B], and He doesn't leave you wondering how to get from point A to point B.