Balance

An interesting point was made the other day that really set some things in order. It was the idea of not glorying in our successes. That phrase should sound odd. Of course, I am not suggesting that we glory in failure. The idea that I want to suggest is that of balance.
Much of how we handle our successes or failures has to do with our view of sanctification.  Our natural response to a successful endeavor is usually happiness.  So far, so good.  But another fruit of success can often be pride.  Especially in the realm of temptation.  If we successfully ward off some form of temptation,  we may immediately be tempted to think highly of ourselves and our spiritual maturity.  Which will immediately lead to a fall into some other sin. Usually because we are nowhere near as holy as we think we are.
But on the other hand,  when we fail, we may be tempted to give up and consider ourselves beyond forgiveness. So where is the balance?
When we successfully avoid any particular temptation,  yes, we should be pleased that we resisted sin.  But we should immediately respond with thankfulness for God's continued intervention and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We only succeeded because of the grace of God. We need to make it an automatic response of caution and attention.  We need to learn to know ourselves,  where we are weak.
And on the flip side of this, when we fall into sin, the only thing God wants from us is repentance and confession.  We fall down and we immediately get up again and keep working at holiness. Instead of beating ourselves up, we need to recognize why we fell and not make that same mistake again.
Repentance, confession and humility.