Pride

Dear Readers,

I was inspired to write a little about pride today. I used to think that pride was defined as selfishness, being self involved, like the world revolves around the prideful, haughtiness, arrogance, or having a large ego,but through study, I have found that these are all symptoms of pride, just like jealousy, boasting and bragging.

I found, firstly, that the bible dictionary in the LDS scriptures does not include pride. It is left undefined. Then I came across chapter 18 Beware of Pride in our Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Ezra Taft Benson manual that,"The central feature of pride is enmity--emnity 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."

This was brand new to me. Not only did I learn that my definition of pride had been wrong, but now I also had a diffinition for enmity.

 I began to ponder upon this, and found that it was true. When one is prideful, one thinks they are better than God, that they don't need God, and can even hate God. Also, when one is prideful, one thinks they are better than others, that they don't need others, and can even hate others.

Indeed, sometimes pride is against one's self. One can boast of a great feat because they are ashamed of other aspects in their life. Getting angry at someone, because of their good fortune, is in a mild form, jealousy, but is still routed in pride. One opposes other people because they have what one "deserves" or desires.

To simplify, Paul said concerning the prideful in Phillipians 2:21 "my will not thine be done." This goes for God and man. A boss wants someone to do something, and they don't like it. The individual's will contending against the boss, pride. An individual does not want to keep the Sabbath day holy. The individual's will contending against God, pride.

Sayings like, "I want what they have.", "I am better than you.", "I do what I want." These are all statements of pride. Pride is not a "friendly competition" but rather direct defiance.

If these are what pride is, how do we get rid of it. The remedy of pride is humility. Humility is being humble. You can be in humble circumstances, and yet still not be humble. Like Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, he was nearly killed by his own father, scaring him for life, banished, hunted, and wanted dead or alive. He was even living in a modest abode with his grandfather, hiding who he is and was. Yet he was not allowing this chance to be humble sink in.

He was still prideful in his heart, until his heart was softened. One can even be in a state of grandeur and importance, having all the necessities and extravagance of life, and still be humble. Thus it works both ways.

What are some of the characteristics of humility? Compassion, a willingness to learn, to grow, and serve with charity (charity being the pure love of Christ) are just a few of these "fruits" of humility.

So, how is humility a remedy for pride? I will draw on Christ's parable in Matthew 9:16, "No man putteth a new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse."

I never quite understood this parable, until I was on my mission. In my first area, my first transfer (6 week period) I ripped a big hole in my pants. They were new pants, but they were behaving like old. Luckily, the mother of the house I was staying in was willing to patch it up. She sowed a large portion of "new cloth" under the rend, thus repairing it, or so we all thought. A week or two later, the pants ripped again, just this time, it was along the sown edge of the patch. I understood then, that the new fabric was being pulled from a stitch, and it did not have as much give as normal fabric has with itself. Thus, the rend was made incredibly worse. (below are not the actual pants, just a representation of patching and stitching)

Pride is the opposition, contention, or rending and tearing. It pulls apart and separates. If an individual simply tries to cover it up, or make visual repair, the "rend is made worse" and pride just becomes worse, and manifests in different ways.

Humility is the antidote because it is not repairing the problem. Humility removes the problem. This is why it takes repentance for us to be humble. or to have humility. The "re" in "repentance" means to go back, and start anew. Like having a whole new pair of pants. The pride, or rend, is no longer there, because you are a different person, or a new pair of pants.

In a similar way Zuko finally allowed humility and repentance to enter his heart. He realized he could not change the past, or fix everything he had done, but that he could start again. He, essentially, reinvented himself as a good person. Indeed, he went from being one of the antagonists to being one of the protagonists, or heroes.

In this way, humility heals pride. In closing, I would like to point out that, in my comparison with pants and tears, the rend of pride can return, and often does while we are here in mortality, but that does not mean that the remedy changes, or does it mean that if we have a some pride we cannot cover it up or repair it with a patch, it just means that ultimately, pride will need to be completely removed if we are to be completely whole again.

I hope that you have enjoyed this post, and that it has gotten you thinking. Feel free to post any comments, I would love to read them.

Love,
Jacobugoth