This paper discusses pride, a universal sin. It is universal because we all exhibit it and most specific sins, such as anger, are a type of pride. The basic feature of pride is enmity toward, hostility toward, opposition to our Creator and our fellowmen. The opposite of pride is humility and a contrite heart- a willingness to learn, change and improve, a desire to conduct our life according to the teachings of our all-wise Creator. Once you experience the beauty of living in harmony with His teachings, you want to do this and in doing such, you can realize indescribable happiness and peace.
Surrendering yourself to living the wisdom our of Creator, does not mean giving up things that you enjoy and want to do. You want to be a good parent, husband, wife, to excel at work, to learn, to help others, to enjoy hobbies and recreation, etc. These are necessary for income, enjoyment, good mental health, to be an effective parent, for balance in our lives, etc. The time you spend on each and what you do in respect to each, will be directed by the teachings and your personnel desires, plus the guidance of His spirit to insure balance. You will chose what you do, will be happy, content, have peace of mind and self-esteem.
There is another important reason to overcome pride besides obtaining happiness and qualifying for help from our Creator. When we act contrary to the teachings of the Creator, such as when we demonstrate pride, there is a severe negative impact in the Creation. This is demonstrated in the LDS scripture in The Pearl of Great Price in Moses 7: 48: “Enoch looked upon the earth: and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which has gone forth of me? When will my Creator sanctify me that I may rest”. Mother Earth experiences the filth, the sin of Man. When sin occurs, all of Nature demands justice for the harm done-a penalty must be paid. We need to accept our Creator and overcome our weaknesses, sins, so we don’t have to pay these very hard to endure penalties. How this forgiveness is obtained, is explained next.
Forgiveness is possible because our loving Creator has provided a way through His Atonement and our repentance. In the Atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ somehow suffered the penalty for each of our individual sins so we would not need to pay this hard to endure penalty-a penalty which justice requires. His suffering was great: “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit.” (LDS Doctrine and Covenants Section 19: 18). To qualify for forgiveness, we must accept and honor our Creator, Jesus Christ, and work to improve ourselves. For more on this, see The Basic Truths Behind Christ"Teachings.
Returning to pride, the characteristics of prideful, self-centered people, can include: arrogance, haughtiness, hostility to others, unbridled desires, undesirable and/or uncontrolled appetites and passions, you can not accept direction from others including your Creator, hard-heartedness, unrepentant, easily offended, sign seekers, enmity toward fellowmen, you must have more than others, must be above others, jealous, you fear the judgment of others more than that of God, you want praise of men more than that of God, can’t see or admit your own weaknesses, fault finding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, envy, coveting, jealous, withholding gratitude and praise, unforgiving, self conceit, self pity, contention, unrighteous dominion, easily offended, grudges, won’t receive counsel, defensiveness, depends on the world to tell them what is of value and if you don’t succeed, you feel that you are a failure, they won’t change their minds to accept truth (this is admitting that they are wrong), etc.*
We all have one to many of the above shortcomings. If there are many, you likely feel overwhelmed-how can your Creator forgive so many faults. But pessimism is not warranted. The Lord judges us on our desires and if we are making progress, despite many problems, you can be forgiven.
To qualify for forgiveness, you proceed to do three things:
1) Accept and honor our Creator, Jesus Christ;
2) You work to live His teachings-read, ponder, pray and live the teachings. As you do this, pride declines;
3) You identify one or two problems to work on until you conquer them. Only then do you move unto one or two others. You don’t take on a large number at once because you can become overwhelmed and discouraged.
If you proceed as outlined, you will progress and thus be forgiven and you won’t pay any penalties.
To summarize, the proud person is not independent. He is controlled by the world and others. It is hard for him to obtain unity with others. He/she is not loveable. He has no desire to lift people and is unhappy.
The person who is not proud humbles himself before his loving Creator, is teachable, repents of mistakes, can be corrected, wants to help others and rejoices in their success, forgives, wants to submit to God, etc. He enjoys what he is doing, and he feels good. He chooses to live this way.
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* Ezra Taft Benson, Beware of Pride. A talk given to the LDS Church. To read this article: Go to: lds.org, Gospel Library, search Gospel Library, type in benson, pride, pick Beware of Pride.
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