Beware of Pride W08


              Pride can be a destructive characteristic in a friendship and especially in a marriage. President Ezra Taft Benson gave an insightful talk on pride called “Beware of Pride”. This is one of my favorite talks. When I think of prideful people, I think of people who always want to be the best and on top. However, President Benson talked about how pride isn’t always people on the top looking down. Many times, the prideful people are at the bottom looking up. Benson said, “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.”
                I had not thought of those things being prideful and I never really thought of myself as a prideful person. However, I am guilty of some of those things. It is so easy, with all the social media we have now, to compare myself to others and get jealous. After reading this talk, I realized how this affects different relationships in my life in negative ways. Being prideful doesn’t make me happy and certainly doesn’t improve my relationships.
                After considering President Benson’s talk, I have tried to be more positive, more forgiving and have tried to compare myself less to others. This has made me so much happier. I have already seen an improvement in my relationships with people that I love. Pride is a characteristic of the natural man, but we are striving to be more like God. Giving up pride is so important in a marriage. It will allow you to be more loving, kind, and forgiving instead of comparison, jealousy, and pointing out each other’s weaknesses. We all have our faults and struggles and pride makes us focus on other people’s faults when we could be working on bettering ourselves and helping others. This is why giving up pride can be so good for a marriage and help to strengthen the relationship and make it more Godly.

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