Pride

Our Battle with Pride

        Pride seems to come into our life even though we don’t invite it.   Let me try to explain.  I have been married for almost 33 years.  For the first 18 years, I was a stay at home mom.  I had five children pretty close together, so I felt it was important to devote my time to raising our children, loving and nurturing them and helping them get a solid education.  In addition, I also did childcare in our home to try to help supplement our income.  After many years, it started to get old, I needed a change.  When all of our children were in school, I decided to go back to work.  I easily transitioned to my new surroundings.  I worked my way up in the business quickly, where more responsibilities were put on my shoulders.  I ended up spending more and more time outside of the home to do this.  My husband was trying to help with the work load that just wasn’t getting done at home.  Slowly we started to have arguments and I could feel contention entering into our marriage, and into our home.  Ezra Taft Benson (1989) tells us, “Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away.” As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew that I had to do something.  I didn’t really want to.  I loved receiving praise from doing a good job at work, and I loved the bonus money that came with it.  Lucky for me, I was able to see the problem before it got out of control and I quickly made some changes.

Pride Affects our Relationships

            Benson (1989) continues to warn us, “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.” Because I could feel the contention in my home, I knew I needed to act immediately.  I cherish my marriage and family more than anything.  I am grateful that I was able to see my problems. I began to pray to get direction in my life and immediately, the scripture from Mosiah 3:19 came to mind.  It states, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”  In this case, I was like the natural man.  I learned to repent and submit to my Heavenly Father.  I asked for forgiveness.  I wanted to be filled with the Holy Ghost again.  I wanted a home filled with love and happiness.

The Change for Good

            In our text, H. Wallace Goddard (2009) says, repentance “denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world.  Since we are born into conditions of mortality, repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God; and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined.”  I had learned the hard way, that money doesn’t mean everything.  Yes, it would have been nice to continue as we were financially, but it wasn’t worth the price I would have to pay for my soul, and with my marriage and my family.  I need to have the Holy Ghost to be with me constantly. 

The Good We Can Do

            With more time on my hands, and while the kids were in school, I would find myself in the temple.  This took some effort because of the distance and time it took to get there, but I was able to nourish my soul and truly feel at peace.  I began to invite friends and or my husband to come along with me when they could.  The drive was more enjoyable when we were able to sit and talk and enjoy one another’s company the whole way.  Benson (1989), said, “think how temple work would increase if the time spent in this godly service were more important than the many prideful pursuits that compete for our time.” This really was a turning point in my life.  I developed a great love for the temple and the things that I learned there.  I loved how I felt by going to the temple regularly.  Now, I have the opportunity be a temple worker and I absolutely love it!  I am grateful for trials and challenges that came my way many years ago, and for the turning point that directed me to the temple.  

References:

Benson, E. T. (1 April 1989) Beware of Pride. Retrieved from:  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1989/05/beware-of-pride?lang=eng

Goddard, H. W. (2009) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage. (p 59) Retrieved from https://content.byui.edu/file/821fd904-e409-49a9-b078-7fff99c33387/1/Drawing%20Heaven%20into%20Your%20Marriage.pdf (Links to an external site.)

Mosiah 3:19