Years ago I was on a small faculty where two individuals were pitted against each other. Each individual tried to win other faculty members over to their side. I recall the bickering and complaining it fostered. It didn’t take long for a wise principal to round up his shoulders and put an end to the internal strife. He began the mandatory faculty meeting by saying, “When I get through today, every bird in the bush is going to have a BB in its butt.” That is the way I feel when the sin of pride is discussed. It is prevalent, albeit in different degrees, in all of us.
President Ezra Taft Benson taught: “Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing. The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means ‘hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.’ 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….A proud person hates the fact that someone is above him. He thinks this lowers his position.”
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