Beware of Pride


In President Ezra Taft Benson's talk, Beware of Pride, he says, "At the end of this world, when God cleanses the earth by fire, the proud will be burned as stubble and the meek shall inherit the earth." Afterall, it was Lucifer that fell because of his pride. I have to admit, and I am sure many of us can attest to, it that we are all prideful at one time or another. We need to always be aware of our pride and willing to humble ourselves to fix this sin.

Something that I love that President Benson points out is how there is no such thing as "righteous pride." Pride, in its entirety, is a sin. Being prideful is "pitting or will against God's." This is the opposite of what we should be doing. In every aspect of our lives, we should be striving to become closer to God by trusting in His plan and always be willing to submit our will to His. This is something that I really struggle with. I always feel like I know what is best for me and that God is punishing me for some unknown reason, and I begin to lose any faith that I have in His plan. And all of these feelings come from pride. He knows best, and I do not. And I hope I can start on the path of understanding that I really don't know anything, and that all I need to do is trust.

Another thing that struck me about this talk is how President Benson mentions that Christ was crucified because of the people's pride. This was interesting because I had never thought about the people being prideful, but when he said this, it all made sense to me. The people thought that Christ "threatened their position" and through this, they sentenced him to a horrible death. 
"If we love God, do His will, and fear His judgment more than men's, we will have self-esteem." We can't love God and be prideful at the same time. It reminds of an analogy that Elder Bednar gave, that we can't have faith and fear coexisting with one another. Love means trust, and trust leads to faith, and those things are not feelings that can be felt when we are being prideful. 

After reading this amazing, thought provoking talk, it has ignited a desire to change in me. I always thought that I was just lacking faith, where in the thick of it, I am actually being prideful. I hope that all of us can continually be striving to be better, to do better, and to trust the Lord and submit to His will, because THAT is when our faith grows and our blessings can be received into our lives.

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