Haughty eyes and a proud heart—

the lamp of the wicked—are sin.

The proud, haughty person, named “Scoffer,”
acts with arrogant pride.
Proverbs 21:4.24

I really admire people who are fluent in more than one language, because I have spent my whole life trying to simply master English, and I still find myself having to dig in to grammar and vocabulary on a regular basis. Just this week, when I ran across these two verses from Proverbs, I had to grab my dictionary when I came across the word haughty.

Here’s what I found:

haughty [ˈhôdē]

ADJECTIVE

haughtier (comparative adjective) · haughtiest (superlative adjective)

arrogantly superior and disdainful: “a look of haughty disdain” ·

“a haughty aristocrat”

synonyms: proud · arrogant · vain · conceited · snobbish · superior · self-important

I thought haughty was a term of disdain, and once I hit the list of synonyms I’m pretty sure of it. It’s like when I was wondering about the teachings against pride that I encountered back in school, and then understood what was being addressed when I was introduced to “hubris” — excessive self-pride.

All of us can be proud of our accomplishments, until we become arrogant, snobbish, superior, self-important, and haughty. Then we earn the title “Scoffer”, or worse.

Prayer

Dear God Our Creator, help me to take appropriate pride in who I am and what I can be and do. Remind me to give You the glory for my gifts, and to resist the temptation to ever use them to elevate myself arrogantly above Your other children. In the name of our humble Lord Jesus I pray. Amen.