I am starting to see that pride has a hold of Latter-day Saint hearts more than we'd like to admit.
Recently I have been witnessing certain patterns of pride among members of the Church that I hadn't seen or noticed before. Especially when it comes to disagreeing with others on certain opinions. I myself am guilty of this, of course. For example, I used to think that people who leave the Church and hold an active enmity toward it because of a bad experience do so solely on their own pride, that they could have chosen not to be offended. And surely, all of us have to power to choose to rise above offense, but now I am starting to witness more and more rudeness coming from active members and I begin to understand why it's so hard for some to rise. In part, we are holding them down with our bad example. And if we're not holding them down, we're at least not holding them up.
For those of us who have a testimony of the beautiful Gospel of Christ, it is easy to become prideful of it. So much that it is sometimes easier to dismiss the concerns or differences of others with an attitude of, "you just have to believe like I do", or even by attacking the lack of belief or struggles of those people. Defending our faith leaves no room for diminishing or attacking the ideas of others. I think we should be willing to lose some battles, and even to look foolish at times. Our humility must be greater than our pride. I believe that when we achieve such height of humility—and it is difficult, I know—true miracles begin to happen.
That is just one example of the patterns I've been seeing, as this could be applied to a few other things I've experienced lately. I just know that when we put others down in the least bit, yes even if indirectly, and yes even those who oppose us, we are not only hurting that person but we are also damaging the body of Christ in two ways: 1) We are guilty of causing the Savior physical and spiritual suffering, for not only did He suffer for all our sins, like the sin of being prideful, but He also suffered for the pain our sins cause others. 2) We are doing the opposite of strengthening the Church and it's members and we're missing a chance to help the Church fulfill its sacred mission to "proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people". Proclaiming the Gospel requires an earnest demonstration of what it's like to live it, or at least try to. I'd add that we're also missing a chance to perfect ourselves and to become armed with greater righteousness.
We cannot let pride rob us of our humility and long-suffering even when dealing with opposition. We cannot forget that, at our core, we are to be truth-seekers and peacemakers. We cannot be afraid of opposition and lies when we are armed with faith and the Holy Ghost for discernment. It's okay to not know how to respond right away to opposing ideas, and it's even okay to entertain those ideas that seem to contradict what we already believe. When we study those things out prayerfully, the Lord will help us weed out what is not true and leave what is. We will either be left with nothing, or we will have gained something truly valuable. When we stand hand-to-hand with Christ and strive to emulate His perfect character— His character of love, patience, and humility—we cannot lose the ultimate battle against sin and evil. Righteousness will be fulfilled and all Truth will be revealed at the return of our Savior. Until then, let us pray for greater power over sin, specifically the sin of pride.
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