Metal Band Promised Land
Heavy metal meets heavy doctrine, plus other miscellaneous observations and hobbies of a Mormon Gen X'er.

I’ve been involved in a painful but positive experience over the past few weeks. I’ve been humbled.

It is easy to get cocky in life, to let pride creep in and turn us from humble piety to self-interest and negativism. We learn about pride in the Book of Mormon, where over a period of a millennium we watch a society rise and fall, over and over again, because they grow rich and prideful, forgetting God, and then falling to their enemies or suffering from natural catastrophes and famine. This is called the pride cycle and it take place at a macro and micro level. Nations go through it and so do we as individuals. Let me share some personal examples.

I am employed in a role where I am often asked to use my knowledge and experience to make decisions and recommendations. After a while, I get to feeling pretty smart about some things. When a person comes along with a differing viewpoint, a natural tendency for me is to prove my view is the correct one. This is caused by pride.  Sometimes the stakes are higher and many people have opinions and feel passionate about a particular issue.  When engaged in group discussions and debates over a policy issue, those with the superior oratory skills tend to win the arguments and establish their viewpoints over those of others. I hesitate to use the word opponents, but that is essentially what these discussions are, “debates” between different opponents.

I have learned, and I’m still learning, that when I engage tit for tat in these contests of rhetoric, I become aggressive and sensitive to attack. I am more prone to anger and distrust. I am much more likely to feel ill will toward another or to hold a grudge.  When this happens, I recognize the departure from me of the sustaining influence of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of the Lord.

My best defense against falling victim to such frailties and mistakes is to ensure that I engage in daily scripture reading and humble prayer. One of the best things I’ve done recently is to have a prayer together with my wife each morning before leaving for the day. We have never prayed well together in the evening before bed, due largely to our different schedules and evening activities. The morning prayers work well for us and our children are welcome to join us but primarily it is a prayer between the two of us.

My second defense is scripture study. Due to some overbearing academic circumstances, I engage the scriptures in an audio format during my commute. There are pros and cons to the different ways to access the scriptures (book, online, audio) but I’ve grown accustomed to the benefits of the audio interface to the Book of Mormon in particular. I find that when I ply myself each morning with the narrated words of prophets, my defenses are stronger, my mental exertions to maintain proper thoughts and actions are more effective and my overall disposition is kinder, more humble.  I am better able to avoid many of the aforementioned  mistakes in my dealings with my fellow coworkers.

President Ezra Taft Benson, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, gave an address in April 1989 entitled “Beware of Pride.” http://tinyurl.com/km9dce

It is worth reading right now.

I thank God for such prophets and that I, in the midst of my personal growth, can access these words twenty years after they were given. We live in a great and marvelous time. We need tools like this to combat the forces that are working to defeat us.  For me, reading this talk is like taking a hot shower after spending two weeks camping in the wilderness.

Excerpts of President Benson’s talk on pride follow.

“Pride is a misunderstood sin and many are sinning in ignorance.”

“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.”

“Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” Phill. 2:21.”

“Pride is essentially competitive in nature.”

“Another major portion of this very prevalent sin of pride is enmity toward our fellowmen. We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them.”

“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.)”

“It was through pride that Christ was crucified. The Pharisees were wroth because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, which was a threat to their position, and so they plotted His death.”

“Fear of men’s judgment manifests itself in competition for men’s approval. The proud love “the praise of men more than the praise of God.  Our motives for the things we do are where the sin is manifest.”  [Comment:  Think of this in context of: to what lengths am I willing to go to gain the approbation and praise of my superiors, which might translate into personal gain?]

“Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.”  [Comment: I see evidence of this statement every single day I come to work.]

“Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves. Most of us consider pride to be a sin of those on the top, such as the rich and the learned, looking down at the rest of us. (See 2 Ne. 9:42.) There is, however, a far more common ailment among us—and that is pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many ways, such as faultfinding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our means, envying, coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, and being unforgiving and jealous.”

“If we love God, do His will, and fear His judgment more than men’s, we will have self-esteem.”

“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.”

“Pride affects all of us at various times and in various degrees. Now you can see why the building in Lehi’s dream that represents the pride of the world was large and spacious and great was the multitude that did enter into it.”