Becoming Humble

I've decided to add another becoming post. Becoming Charitable will still continue but will be dispersed throughout my other posts.

BECOMING HUMBLE

In portions of President Benson's talk "Beware of Pride" he talks about how we compare ourselves to others and try to put ourselves above them. Basically life becomes a competition with others and we measure our level of worth or our joy and fulfillment by having more and being better than others.

I have seen this so much in the world and in myself. However, I have met a few individuals who seem to have this portion of humility down. They seek out the good in others. They find others' strengths and they magnify them instead of diminish them. They are the type of people that you want to be around because they make you feel good about yourself. They are happy for you when you succeed. They don't secretly mark tallies of their successes verses your successes and failures. As C.S. Lewis said, "Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”

Enjoy selections of the talk below. The entire talk is wonderful - to read the whole talk click here.

Beware of Pride

President Ezra Taft Benson

We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them. (See Hel. 6:17; D&C 58:41.) The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10.)

Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.

When pride has a hold on our hearts, we lose our independence of the world and deliver our freedoms to the bondage of men’s judgment. The world shouts louder than the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. The reasoning of men overrides the revelations of God, and the proud let go of the iron rod. (See 1 Ne. 8:19–28; 1 Ne. 11:25; 1 Ne. 15:23–24.)