Pride

I have been married for twelve wonderful years and during that time I have learned a lot about how pride effects marriages. I would love to sit back and say that things were all roses for us when we first got married.  In fact, most of the time it was just that roses. There was one thing that would pop in and out of our marriage that made things quite difficult sometimes. That thing is known as pride. I learned the good and bad about myself during those first few years. I had a hard time admitting this in the beginning of our marriage but I’ll say it now, I was prideful in some areas.

I loved President Benson talk titled Beware of Pride. President Benson (1989) states, “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” (p.2). I didn’t have the hatred part of it, but I did have some hostility.  I had a hard time seeing my faults and would get bothered with my husband when we try to help me acknowledge them.  I would try to twist things around and take the blame off of me.  Another great quote by President Benson(1989)states, “ Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves”(p.2). The opposition really came into play when it finally hit me that maybe I was partly to blame.  I pushed back for a while before I finally let go of that pride.

As my husband and I learned to let go of our pride, our marriage began to thrive. We learned from one another strengths and weaknesses. We began to value more of one another’s thoughts and opinions. We mattered to each other, but most importantly we loved and respect not only each other but our marriage. We turned towards our Heavenly Father for strength and guidance. We learned to look at each other as human beings with feelings, not just an object.  Marriage for us only gets better and better each year.