Everyone has heard of the seven deadly sins. Ok, so perhaps not everyone, but many people have. From Wikipedia: “The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, are a classification of vices that were originally used in early Christian teachings to educate and instruct followers concerning (immoral) fallen man’s tendency to sin.” In this day and age, these sins have become somewhat commonplace.

The seventh sin is listed as pride. It’s also considered the original and most deadly of the seven. I don’t think pride in itself is such a big sin. Every person has to have some pride in themselves. Pride in yourself leads to self-belief, and a confidence that you can achieve anything you set your heart and mind to. But too much pride leads to arrogance. And arrogance is never a good thing, at least in my opinion.

Now, vanity falls under the classification of pride, taking pride in one’s own appearance. Again, you need to take some pride in your appearance, similar to having pride in yourself. Too much of this pride, and vanity is born. For quite a long time now, I have been quite vain. It’s strange, because to start off with, I took pride in my appearance, but was never vain. Then I started to hear some of the things people were beginning to say about me. And over the years, I developed a certain vanity. Looking back, I wonder at how I could ever have developed this vanity. Truth be told, I don’t have much to be vain about.

But anyway, I’ve known (and been told on a number of occasions) that I am fairly vain. Just how much, I began to realize over the past few days. Faced with a problem that’s not too uncommon, I began to worry excessively, thinking about possible solutions all the time, and generally getting into a depressed state of mind. The thing is, I don’t like being depressed for too long. I began to think about why I was affected this way, started talking openly with a friend and my sis. It’s quite silly, because for starters, the problem could be much worse, and secondly, there are so many other more important things to worry about. And I’m also making the effort to try and reverse the problem. It was then that I realized just how vain I had become. How I was letting a small thing affect me so much.

More than the appearance, what makes up a person is what’s important. I’ve always preached this, but I think I have seldom practiced it. I mean, what gives me the right to judge a person’s appearance. We don’t choose our appearance, though I realize with the advent of plastic surgery this is more and more possible. ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ might be cliche, but it is so so true. Giving too much importance to appearance, both yours and someone else’s, is not worthwhile (in my opinion, of course).

Vanity is going to be around for a long time, for probably as long as man exists, and perhaps longer. I’m not trying to change people. It’s up to the individual to change. I will make the effort to change though. I will slowly try to let go of my vanity. I will not judge a person’s appearance, nor judge them by their appearance. I will, slowly, be humbled.

P.S. And while I’m at it, I might as well try to let go of the other six sins, or whichever of those sins that refer to me!