Humperdinck...Beware of Pride

While off visiting a member of our ward this week, Sister McBride and I ran into this little guy. We saw him hopping along our path and decided to see if he would let us talk to him. His name is Humperdinck as you can see by the angle of his nose, he was too lifted up in the pride of his heart to let us talk to him.

I remember a particularly humbling experience for me. My best friend and I were at church and the lesson was on the pride cycle. We see the pride cycle over and over in the scriptures.

When the people in general listen to God's authorized servants and obey God's commandments they enjoy a time of peace and prosperity, then they become proud. They forget that all they have comes from God and they stop obeying the commandments and are lifted up in the pride of their eyes. Then if they don't humble themselves, they are humbled. They do not receive the same blessings they did when they were being obedient. Then, because they have been humbled, they remember to call upon God. They repent and start to live the commandments again and the cycle starts all over again.

Does that sound familiar? It should have sounded familiar to me! After the lesson I commented to my friend how I don't think we all have to go through pride cycles...oh how wrong I was! A while later, I had a very humbling experience in one of my institute classes. It was one of those moments where a spiritual mirror came in front of me and I saw very clearly some of my spiritual weaknesses. I was going through one of my very own personal pride cycles. I had become a little bit proud about different things and I needed to be humbled.

As hard as that experience was for me, I am eternally grateful for it now. It reminded me what it is to be humble. In True to the Faith it says about Humility

"To be humble is to recognize gratefully your dependence

on the Lord—to understand that you have constant need for

His support. Humility is an acknowledgment that your talents

and abilities are gifts from God. It is not a sign of weakness,

timidity, or fear; it is an indication that you know where

your true strength lies."

I am eternally grateful for the lesson I learned (and continue to learn) about being humble. I love that it is understanding that all I have that is good comes from God. He is where my true strength lies.