6 Ways Your Pride Is Controlling You

To conquer pride and develop humility, we must first understand pride and its consequences and then choose to be humble.

We’re all plagued by pride. Despite our valiant efforts to be humble, pride always seems to slip in, perhaps because we don’t fully understand pride and how it can be manifested. Pride’s manifestations and consequences are defined by President Ezra Taft Benson in his April 1989 general conference talk, “Beware of Pride.” He explains that “pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance.”

Manifestations of Pride

Pride is generally understood to mean being self-centered, but President Benson points out that the heart of pride is “enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen.” President Benson defines enmity as hatred or opposition, and he points out that pride can be manifested in six ways:

1. Being competitive
2. Taking offense
3. Finding fault in others
4. Being contentious
5. Holding grudges
6. Being defensive

Consequences of Pride

The consequences of pride are grave and can motivate us to expel pride from our lives. Some of these consequences include a loss of the Spirit and a lack of unity.

The Choice to Be Humble

Humility is the antidote to pride. President Benson encourages us to choose to be humble, and he expresses his belief in our capability to do so. We can choose to be humble by doing the following things, which eliminate the manifestations of pride in our lives:

1. Receive counsel
2. Forgive
3. Preach the gospel
4. Attend the temple frequently
5. Serve
6. Repent
7. Submit our wills to God’s will

When we recognize the manifestations and consequences of pride for what they are, we can choose to be humble instead.

Read, watch, or listen to President Ezra Taft Benson’s talk “Beware of Pride” to learn more about how pride manifests itself and how to choose to be humble.

Source: ChurchofJesusChrist.org

—Rachel Cannon, Mormon Insights

FEATURE IMAGE BY DARIA SHEVTSOVA

Find more insights

Take a look at President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talk “Pride and the Priesthood.”

Listen to Arthur C. Brooks’s speech “More Love, Less Contempt,” given at Brigham Young University’s April 2019 commencement ceremony.

Read Kim B. Clark’s speech “Are Ye Stripped of Pride?”

Check out the Mormon Channel Q&A episodes titled “Pride” and “Humility.”

Learn about humility and love by watching this short video featuring Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf.