Pride

This past week I've been studying more about pride, specifically on how it can affect our marriages. In a General Conference talk given by Ezra Taft Benson in 1989 he said, "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." Often times you won't recognize the pride in yourself because you are being prideful. So how do we fix that. The key to fixing it is first to recognize that you are being prideful, and then to humble yourself and turn toward others.

In Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage by H. Wallace Goddard it reads, "In great literature—including scripture—the highest and noblest service entailed sacrifice and selflessness. In contrast, evil was always self-centered and self-serving." How true this is, at least in all of the books that I have read it's usually when the protagonist gives up everything that the situation turns around and actually gets better. In Goddard's book he also said, "To the modern mind, it doesn’t make logical “sense” that if we sacrifice our own wants and needs, in favor of our spouses, that we will find true joy and happiness."

I know that even though this doesn't follow with what the world tells us it is absolutely true. I have found that it is when I am serving and helping my husband Richard and my son Gideon, that I am at my happiest, even if it's when I'm doing something that I don't particularly like, like cleaning, it's when we're serving each other and working together that you can find great joy and watch your marriage grow.