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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

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