President Benson, who is quickly
becoming one of my favorite prophets ever, had an amazing talk on pride that
kinda blew me away and I’d highly recommend it for anyone who thinks they’re
doing pretty good spiritually lol, cause it’ll be a wake up call to you like it
has been for me. We covered a portion
on his talk in Sunday School a few weeks back and I wanted to bring his points
to the forefront and add some of my own legit sound doctrine to it.
I had heard a while back, and I can’t remember now where I
learned it, but Heavenly Father isn’t proud of anyone! Ever!
Never! See following.
Matthew
3:17 And lo a avoice from
heaven, saying, This is my bbeloved cSon, in whom I am well pleased.
Mark1:11
And there came a voice from heaven, saying,
Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Luke3:22
And the aHoly Ghost
descended in a bodily shape like a bdove upon him, and a voice
came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
3
Nephi 11:7 Behold my aBeloved Son,
bin whom I
am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.
So…why
pleased and not…proud? Enter President
Benson (my comments/musing are in italics):
Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness,
conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of
the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.
The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity
toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward,
hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes
to reign over us.
So this is why I told my brother I wasn’t proud of
him. If I was then essentially I’d hate
everyone else or be hostile to them.
I’d “guard” if you will the fact that my brother did this or that. When people say they’re proud of their kids,
deep down…really…what are they feeling/thinking about their kids in comparison
to others? Are they getting some long
since denied/missing self-fulfillment that they’re now getting by vicariously
living through their kids? If you
haven’t thought about this ever and then you hear me say this now it sounds
like I’m heartless.
When we were talking about this in Sunday School I
got a little emotional and probably felt the Spirit confirm to me that Heavenly
Father is so careful to watch his words on multiple occasions so as to not
misconstrue His feelings towards His Son, but to me as well. Of alllllll the people to be “proud” of
Jesus would top the list. Even with Him
though Heavenly Father made sure to say He was pleased with Him and not
proud. He did this to show me He still
loves me and His Son. Had He said He
was proud of Jesus at any point than that would’ve destroyed any prior belief I
had that Heavenly Father truly loves all His children the same and that I
was/am worth as much to Him as anybody else.
The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their
intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring
device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out
of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is
the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once
the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” (Mere Christianity,
New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10.) This reminds me of the current global class warfare we’re
currently seeing! It is interesting to
note that we are taught to look to the Godhead in all things, even our
validation, hence the repetition of focusing on being a son or daughter of
God. I think/wonder, perhaps, if the
“final” leap for me and any son or daughter is for us to make the leap of not
needing anybody’s validation, even the Godhead’s. Their teaching of “Do things of your own free will and choice” I
believe is Them prodding us to the truth to come to the realization that in so
doing is where real progress and happiness comes from. Not from putting down another person and
making yourself more important than them, but from being comfortable and
content with who you are (once you’re perfect of course) and then helping
others to do the same as that is the most mutually beneficial mindset to have
for everyone and results in the greatest prosperity and happiness despite what
others may say…if that makes sense.
Benson continues…”pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many
ways, such as faultfinding (BINGO THIS IS ME!), gossiping (BINGO THIS
IS ME! I heard a quote or something
saying that if someone will listen to you gossip you better believe they’ll
gossip about you no problem. I’m
currently trying to stop this completely even if it is harmless. I try and look at people more
Christlike. It has been
interesting. Instead of agreeing with
people I find myself finding the good in the person being talked about and in
some cases that has completely changed the mentality of the gossiper about the
gossipee), backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our means (I feel this
is me a little bit), envying (BINGO THIS IS ME!), coveting,
withholding
gratitude
and praise
that might lift another(BINGO THIS IS ME!…at work), and being
unforgiving and jealous.
Selfishness
is one of the more common faces of pride. “How ffects me” is the center of all
that matters—self-conceit, self-pity (addiction…duh! I never really thought of self-pity as
prideful, but it makes sense as often addictive behaviors require putting
oneself above another), worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and
self-seeking.
I found the following very interesting…Pride results in secret
combinations which are built up to get power, gain, and glory of the world.
This fruit of the sin of pride, namely secret
combinations, brought down both the Jaredite and the Nephite civilizations and
has been and will yet be the cause of
the fall of many nations….woooow. Watch out USA and other developed countries!
The scriptures testify that the proud are easily offended and
hold grudges.
I
feel bad about reading this one and thinking back to Sunday School just
yesterday. One brother was called upon
to answer a question and he went on quite the tangent and the teacher then
re-directed him to answer the question and he essentially pouted that he was
going to get to that and then…he grabbed his stuff and left the room. Sad.
They withhold forgiveness to keep
another in their debt and to justify their injured feelings. Oops…I’ve done this a time or two to
people I know.
The proud do not receive counsel or correction easily. Defensiveness is used by them to justify and
rationalize their frailties and failures. (See
They won’t change their minds to accept truths, because to do so
implies they have been wrong…sounds like me a few years ago and even a few
people I talk to now about addiction issues and even our current political,
social, and economic issues.
Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is
the universal sin, the great vice. (I
actually did not italicize the “is” in this last sentence)
The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness.
It is the broken heart and contrite spirit.
God will have a humble people. This definitely stood out to me lol. It seems that either we accept being humble
and the true way of living and benefit immensely from so doing or…the other
option is probably being cast away into hell for eternity cause Heavenly Father
is not going to waste His time.
Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble.
Let
us choose to be humble.
Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. (Again,
didn’t italicize his “is” this time either…I think he is trying to tell me
something…)
We must cleanse the inner vessel
by conquering pride.
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