Skip to main content

Diminishing Pride

The topic of pride is such an eye opening thing to speak about. We have to release our pride to even talk about the fact that we may be prideful. It has been interesting to me that pride can occur in various forms. The first example of pride I would think about would be an arrogance in talents. When we are skilled at something and we know it and dwell on that fact, then I see that as a form of pride. However, pride can come in our thoughts. Ezra Taft Benson- a former LDS prophet explains more about pride in a talk titled “Beware of Pride.” During this talk he explains that sometimes it’s our mindset that we have that shows pride in our lives. A competitive mindset is a prideful mindset.
        
Looking at my life right now, I have seen several prideful moments because of how competitive and perhaps self-centered I can be at times. This feeling of being better than someone takes away our focus from others, and causes us to be left with a missing piece. We can never fill in that gap of needing to be better.

So how does pride affect our marriages? Pride can be one of the single worst things for a marriage. President Benson explains, “The central feature of pride is enmity- enmity towards God and enmity towards our fellowmen. Enmity means hatred toward, hostility to, or state of opposition.” That explains so much of why Pride can be so damaging towards our relationships, and especially marriages. We become hostile and have a sort of hate towards the people we are with. We seek to do better than those around us, and we have a hard time feeling that empathy and love towards others.

One thing that can be hard for us to recognize is if we are the ones being prideful. It's so easy to see it in the character of someone else, but does it lie in the eye of the beholder?

I'm going to give you a little tip.... here are 4 steps to cornering our pride and diminishing it.

1. Recognize our pride

2. Understand what is being neglected because of our pride

3. Work towards pinpointing what actions are referred to as pride
So the underlying question is… how can we be sure to stay clear from that enmity we receive from pride? We learn that pride is a trait of the natural man, and that it is something that God disagrees in. 


The answer to staying clear of pride is being humble and selflessly serving others. As we take the time to care for those around us we can be sure to stay away from the hate and hostility that the world brings about. We can develop love for people.
This holds true in our marriages, dating life, friendships and acquaintances. Through acts of service and kindness, we can love those we are with and be sure to get the most out of our relationships.

 References-
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building Friendship and overcoming the natural man Week 5

I have couples in my life that I look up to because of their sweet relationships with one another. Think about it, aren’t there those people in your lives who you just admire and long to have a relationship such as there? I can tell you one thing. They most likely had a bond before they got married. They were each others friends, and now they are the best of friends continuiong to overcome the natural man such as the scripture in Mosiah 3:19 mentions. “For he natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit , and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child  In order to maintain those healthy relationships with out spouses, and need to treat them as our best friend and someone we desire to have by our side. Dr. John Gottman, in his book  “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Effects of divorce on children

Divorce can be a really world shattering event for children. Imagine how hard it is for the parents to cope after so many years of living together, and then think about how it is just as hard for children to get used to the shook lifestyle that they are now living.  Did you know that there is a specific classroom setting for students whose parents have divorced?We hear so many studies of the effect that divorced parents have on children, and it seems only right that we train our children how to deal with it.  Children can learn how to cope with the mixed up life, and they can learn terms and words such as "joint-custody" etc...  It is also a great experience for children to talk with other kids and understand that it's not a weird event that occured in their lives. It is a lot more common than we think. In fact, it's very sad to think of how common it is. While all of this might seem like I good idea for the children, I was questioning whether ...
Post a Comment
Read more