Let Us Look to God, Not Worshipping our Own Image

I would like to share some inspiring thoughts given by a member of the Church Sunday during the Priesthood hour. The class was based on "Pride and the Priesthood"--a landmark discourse given in General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in October of 2010 by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The following are segments of this monumental talk that touched me personally during the lesson:

"When our hearts are filled with pride, we commit a grave sin, for we violate the two great commandments. ⁷ Instead of worshipping God and loving our neighbor, we reveal the real object of our worship and love—the image we see in the mirror...

This sin has many faces. It leads some to revel in their own perceived self-worth, accomplishments, talents, wealth, or position. They count these blessings as evidence of being “chosen,” “superior,” or “more righteous” than others. This is the sin of “Thank God I am more special than you.” At its core is the desire to be admired or envied. It is the sin of self-glorification."

The teacher who prepared the class had also made several excellent points speaking on a similar subject weeks earlier. He conveyed that when we truly have charity and we have personally felt the pure love of Christ in our lives, there is no reason that we should be participants of jealousy or pride. Why should we mock our fellow man if we are all beggars of the same almighty being? Why should we glorify ourselves or think us more special than our neighbor when we are children of the same king? Why should we seek to place ourselves above others and obtain glory to our name when there is only one name under heaven whereby man may be saved, which name is the name of Christ who has conquered all, even the world?

"Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman."

I know through personal experience that if we want to feel pure joy in our lives, we must be humble. Humility comes through recognizing our weaknesses and placing our faith in Jesus Christ so that we can, through Him, overcome them. We have no innate power to change the natural man unless we are "willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us]" and unless we "yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit" (Mosiah 3:19) . Let us look to God and not be in bondage to a worship of the image we see in the mirror.