Name Your Sin

[threadwalker]

The list of the 7 deadly sins or 7 sinful thoughts changed over time. I pulled the one I'm most familiar with, which is a modern Catholic list, and inserted a few alternates from other lists in parenthesis.

gluttony
lust (extravagence/unrestrained excess)
greed
wrath
sloth (despair)
envy
pride

Most of us will admit that we have 'weaknesses' or 'areas of improvement'. I'll call a spade a spade and admit that one of the items on this list has been something I've struggled with all my life. I've certainly allowed myself to fall victim to all of them at one point or another, but one has been an overall theme.

So I'm curious if anyone else has put thought into this. I'll share mine if you'll share yours.... (mine is going to be enbedded in a comment as soon as I have a lunch break and the time to write something)

Comments

[lifeofglamour.livejournal.com]

Hmm...the one I have the most trouble with has changed throughout the phases of my life. Certainly sloth/despair in my early 20s, along with gluttony.
I've worked hard to curb wrath and pride at other times more recent, but I've never had any trouble with greed, lust or envy.
What? I said that lust was no trouble, not that it wasn't present... ;-)

[kiffinyjean.livejournal.com]

bah... i struggle with all of them... fairly consistantly.

[sassycat8.livejournal.com]

Overarching, I struggle with pride, but I recognize all of them in myself. I have definitely had to work through lust, wrath and envy at various times in my life. Sloth, gluttony and greed are less inherent to me, but still show up on occasion.

I use pride as protective cover for my insecurities. It is my minds way of protecting that piece. The more I make peace with my imperfections, the less I experience pride, and envy for that matter.

Thanks for this post, it is interesting to think about. I have at times pondered at length how our society almost encourages these attributes and discourages the graces. But that is a whole different post. :)

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

Pride is my sin. Sometimes I couple it with a big helping of wrath. I hold grudges like a pro.

That said, I consider acting on the sinful thoughts to be generally a bad idea. I do take a great deal of occasional pleasure in thinking those thoughts, though.

[stealth-1066.livejournal.com]

The History Channel has a very good program on each of the deadly sins and how some have changed over the centuries.

None of us are so pious that we have not fallen/ been tempted by all of them at some time in our lives!

In the stricter definition;

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

Gluttony is the one taking me down. Although sloth is there as well. The other ones, not quite as much.

Oh Prydeful Womane, Shayme on Thee

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Pride.

(By the way, Pride makes it on every list even though some of the others get altered)

Hands down, Pride is my sin.

I'm good at what I do. NO, I'm VERY good at what I do. In my professional life, personal life, hobbies, at home, etc. It's taken me a long time to get there in some cases, but I'm good and I know it. If I'm not good, then I figure out what I need to do and either I throw in the towel or I do it.

I know that I come across as a confident woman, especially at work. Whatever my SCA friends think of my "Confident Aura" in the SCA, per several co-workers, I'm hands down a force of confidence at work who will nuke you if you disagree with me and you don't have your facts straight. (This description was created by a male co-worker who watched me do QA-Throwdowns for a few years).

[thelbk.livejournal.com]

sloth/despair - giving in to the great dark cloud...

Pride - being unable to let go of the pride long enough to allow myself to face possible rejection/failure...perfection or nothing usually leads to nothing.

In descending order...

[dakini-bones.livejournal.com]

wrath The Russian judges give a 9.5/10!
sloth (despair) The Russian judges give a 8.5/10!
gluttony The Russian judges give a 7/10!
pride The Russian judges give a 6/10!
envy The Russian judges give a 4/10!
lust/ greed The Russian judges give a 2/10!

I struggle with it on a moment to moment basis.
Buddhist sins...not just for Catholics anymore!
>:}

[syele.livejournal.com]

I think I am torn between sloth (I really do like sleeping, damn it!) and envy...not necessarily envying other's possessions, but holding myself against others more often than I should, if that makes sense. I sometimes need help remembering that I am fabulous in my own right, and that I shouldn't compare the things I do or am vs. the things that others are doing.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I'm constantly beaten by sloth caused by despair, and gluttony caused by despair, and wrath caused by despair. Detecting a trend here?

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

That is interesting because "despair" was a stand-alone sin on some lists because it was felt (per my reading) that to despair was to turn to sloth which resulted in refusing to use the gifts that God has given you. Which also implies that Despair is a choice and not a state of mind. There is some interesting writing on this particular sin which goes into the psychology and what I got out of the small bit that I read was that it was understood by some that depression was something that people could suffer from AND it was not a choice. I thought that for the time/place, that was pretty forward thinking of them.

[colletteshorses.livejournal.com]

Despair is definitely the issue I struggle with the most.

From there, I have tendencies toward gluttony.

I do see some small amounts of greed and envy, these aren't really so much for money as they are based on security and happiness. (Greed to have enough money to be secure in a comfortable lifestyle, and to expect others to actively work to make their lives better, rather than wanting me to support every bum on the street who is wearing new clothes and has a $1000 bicycle locked up under a nearby bridge; and envy of the traits people have, or the experiences they have had, which give them a potential I want to have but don't see ever having in myself.)

For wrath, I do get angry, since I am human, but a person has to work hard to get on my hit list (there are several people who have worked hard to be on the list of people I will never trust, and then there are the few people who have worked really hard to injure me, either physically or, more often, mentally, and those people are on the never to be tolerated list). However, there are not many people on these two lists. I'm not sure if I need two hands to count all the people on both lists. Thus, I don't think this counts as very wrathful.

[skachick-101.livejournal.com]

all of them at one time or another, of course. But, the one I struggle with the *least* is envy. I don't want what someone else has bad enough to be jealous about it or try to take it away or even be angry at them or whatever. It just takes too much energy, much like hate.

My worst one? lately its sloth (laziness) I just want to sleep!

[answers-within.livejournal.com]

Good thoughtful question, as you so often provide.

Wrath is sort of nos. 1, 2 and 3 on my list. I've always, always had a very short fuse and high (often insanely high) expectations of other people and the world, which is a really bad combination. I also had a chronically angry mother so being mad all the time was kind of normal growing up. I've worked hard on it and am happy that it's much, much less the case now.

Gluttony and sloth are like Siamese twins in my world, so they're jointly next in line. Despair makes me slothful which makes me gluttonous as a response - I don't do gluttony nearly so much when I'm feeling good about things because I get very busy and banish sloth. So that is definitely a chain reaction - if I can nip the despair, the rest will stay quiescent.

Pride comes next, though it's sort of middle of the road - I guess it depends a bit on how you define it. For me it's less about the kind of things that you describe - being good at what you do and wanting that acknowledged - and more about my need to be right and shove that in people's faces. Perhaps those aren't analogous, but that's the closest I've gotten to pride. It's been a big problem most of my life and again I've put a lot of work into relaxing and detaching from whether I'm right or not, much less whether other people need to be bludgeoned with my rightness. I will occasionally take a stand on something but it's usually far more appropriate.

Greed and envy are the bottom of the list for me - I have never wanted more than I need of just about anything, and am generally pretty non-material overall, and I certainly don't get bunched up about things other people have that I wish I did! Honestly, if it's a material thing and I want it that bad I'll just get it myself. If it's something intrinsic, like someone having awesome teeth (I have "tetracycline teeth" from childhood) I am happy for them that they have it, mildly sad/annoyed/amused that I don't, and that's about the extent of it.

[sirst.livejournal.com]

Gluttony, sloth, and lust. No surprises in there. ;)