What is pride? President Ezra Taft Benson, a prophet of God, once defined pride as the following, " Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness... 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. "
When I think of pride, I think of the cause of every sin, fault, and short coming of people in life as we have ever known it. Pre-dating even this world in it's existence, pride was the sin that brought division among God's spirit children. When God presented his plan of happiness and salvation to his children, it was pride that ruled Lucifer's heart. Wanting the glory for himself, putting enmity between himself and is Father, Lucifer stepped forward with a desire to impose his plan over that of the Father's. It was because of pride that Satan and 1/3 of the host of Heaven became fallen angels, and were cast our of the presence of their Father. Pride is what brought into existence the Devil himself.
How does pride affect us in our lives? How do we know when we are being prideful? President Ezra Taft Benson identifies pride in this way, " Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s. "
If we can not find it in our hearts to forgive, repent, serve, or be taught in our relationship with God, and our relationship with our fellow men, then we are guilty of the sin of pride. This is the root cause of all sin. We can not be with our Father after this life if we do not forsake the sin of pride that rules the " natural man's " heart.
Pride can be, and is overcome on a daily basis. What is the opposite of pride? Humility is what we must seek in our lives if we do not wish to be separated from God through pride. Humility can be defined as the following, " To be humble is to recognize gratefully our dependence on the Lord—to understand that we have constant need for His support. Humility is an acknowledgment that our talents and abilities are gifts from God. "
How is it that we " recognize gratefully our dependence on the Lord? " Humility is realized best through the act of charity. What I mean by charity is the as the scriptures define real charity: " 45 And acharity suffereth long, and is bkind, and cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things... 47 But acharity is the pure blove of Christ, and it endureth cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. " -( Moroni 7: 45&47 )
Through charity we can overcome the sin of pride. We can become more like our Savior Jesus Christ, who when presented with the Plan of Salvation by God our Father before this world was, stepped forward and said , "...cFather, thy dwill be done, and the eglory be thine forever. " -( Moses 4:2 )
Jesus Christ has no enmity towards His Father, or any other, nor has he ever. He is the prime and perfect example of Humility. All His life was lived in the service of His Father and his fellow men. His love and charity towards others is the formula that we must use in our lives to forsake the condemning sin of pride that so easily finds its way into the hearts of men.
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