I’ve been thinking about pride. We all talk about our Texas pride, but what do we mean by "pride"? Isn’t pride one of the seven deadly sins?

Well, when you get Texans talking about why they are proud, you realize they are really talking about admiration and gratitude. 

Admiration for the people who came before us, gratitude for what they did, and for the Texas we inherited from them. Yes, there’s a big dose of gratitude in Texas-style pride.

But that gratitude runs even deeper than for a lot of us.

As the song says, “God blessed Texas.” 

Sam Houston understood that.

As governor, he  issued a Thanksgiving proclamation on October 27, 1860. 

It read, in part:

“Though the year drawing to a close has not been marked by that degree of prosperity which hitherto attended the people of Texas, yet we can feel grateful to Heaven for the manifold blessings vouchsafed to us.

For that protecting power, which attended Texas in her hour of gloom, and has conducted her through the paths of prosperity up to the present period, for all this we have abundant reason to be thankful.”

Indeed we do.

I’m grateful to our forebears and to Providence that I have the privilege of being a Texan. I think that best sums up what I mean when I talk about Texas pride.

This shirt is a wearable reminder of that gratitude. The word “Grateful” is in Sam Houston’s own handwriting. That adds something, doesn’t it?

I hope you’ll wear it with “pride”.

And may our deeds make future generations of Texans grateful for the Texas they inherit from us.

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