Vainglory

Vainglory is one of the most common of the seven capital vices.  All of us showcase vainglory every day of our lives and we don't even realize it.  DeYoung describes vainglory as the excessive and disordered desire for recognition and approval from others.  By just talking about ourselves, how many hits you got in a game, what you ate for lunch, talking about anything about ourselves exhibits vainglory.  Trying to impress friends, exaggerating something you did, striving for attention in any way is vainglory.  DeYoung mentions that many times when we do something good and others did not notice we feel disappointed.  Pride is the root of all other vices.  Although similar, pride is different from vainglory.  Pride is concerned with excellence in itself; vainglory is concerned with the display of excellence.  Vainglory is a desire for recognition where image is everything.  DeYoung says on page 65, "Vainglory gives one a quick and fleeting high instead of the substantial and lasting reward of virtue."  Vainglory is centered around our own glory and recognition.  When we do something good we should give glory and recognition to God and not ourselves and not seek recognition from others.  There are many verses in the Bible where Jesus warns against vainglory.  We do not need to seek recognition from others; like DeYoung says on page 74, "God promises to fulfill the deep desire to be known, to be acknowledged, and to be accepted with unconditional love." 


Trying to stop being vainglorious is a very difficult task.  DeYoung gives a few suggestions of how we can start.  For example, she says that we can try to take the spotlight off of ourselves.  This is incredibly difficult and this is where our disciple comes into play.  We were challenged to go a whole day without talking about ourselves in any way.  This is an almost impossible task for anyone to complete because it is just our nature to talk about ourselves and what we are doing in our day and things like that.  I obviously failed the discipline as I would expect us all to.  I tried to go as long as I could throughout the day without talking about myself but that did not last very long.  This helped me realize how vainglorious I am throughout every single day of my life and made me change the way I think about vainglory.