L08 Beware of Pride
In the talk, Beware of Pride by Ezra Taft Benson states, “Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our family members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts. The scriptures tell us that “only by pride cometh contention.” (Prov. 13:10; see also Prov. 28:25.)
I can see pride in my family and in all honesty in myself. Benson states, “Pride adversely affects all our relationships—our relationship with God and His servants, between husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, teacher and student, and all mankind. Our degree of pride determines how we treat our God and our brothers and sisters.” Pride is the power Satan uses to take over us and causes contention in our relationships of those we love."
Do you have relationships or friendships that pride has destroyed?
Do you have hard-hardness, contention, faultfinding or withholding gratitude towards those you love?
Do you have hard-hardness, contention, faultfinding or withholding gratitude towards those you love?
The natural man is in all of us. Pride can slowly weave its way into marriages and relationships. It brings contention and selfishness. It chips away at the happiness we should have in our relationships and marriage.
Benson provides loving and direct council to overcome pride.
“The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. We can choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high or higher than we are. We can choose to humble ourselves by forgiving those who have offended us. We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives. We must yield “to the enticings of the Holy Spirit,” put off the prideful “natural man,” become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,” and become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble.”
“The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. We can choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high or higher than we are. We can choose to humble ourselves by forgiving those who have offended us. We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives. We must yield “to the enticings of the Holy Spirit,” put off the prideful “natural man,” become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,” and become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble.”
I have seen pride and selfishness destroy marriages. Little by little pride took over where love once was. Pride can manifest when we think we are in the right, feel superior to another, get irritated by something our spouse does or we don’t take their feelings into consideration. No marriage is perfect, but we can humble ourselves and follow the counsel given to overcome and prevent pride from destroying marriages.
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