Humility is a willingness to submit to the will of the Lord and to give the Lord the honor for what is accomplished. It includes gratitude for His blessings and acknowledgement of our constant need for His divine help. Humility is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of spiritual strength.
Preach My Gospel
I love to associate with humble people. Some of the best people on the whole earth are those who live in humble circumstances. I learned this valuable lesson when I served an LDS mission in Argentina during the mid-1970s. While most people there at that time had sufficient for their needs, many others did not. It was an eye-opening experience to see real want for the basic necessities of life. Shelter, food, clothing, employment, medical care and transportation where in short supply for some of the people I met. Their opportunities for employment and education were so very limited. Even though they were poor by the standards of the world, most of the time they were rich in what mattered most. Their humble circumstances brought them to depend on the Savior and his higher power to bless and sustain them through times of trial.
We encountered many humble people in Peru and many years later when we visited Mongolia. People with little, expect little and learn to be happy with what little they have. They are far better off in the attributes that matter than many people who have much and yet have so little of the things that really matter. Humble people are the salt of the earth. I love to be around them to to learn from their amazing strength and character.
The opposite of humility is pride, which is condemned in the scriptures. We are constantly being reminded in scripture about the evil influence of pride and of its destructive outcomes. To be prideful means that we put greater trust in ourselves than we do in God. We take all the credit for the things we accomplish and we tend to put the things of the world above the things of God. We sometimes tend to flaunt our successes and want others to know our titles, our income levels and how successful we are and it is manifest in the way we dress, live our lives, in the homes we own and in what cars we drive and in the activities we do. Prideful people take credit for their successes instead of giving the credit to God. Prideful people often seek to have more and more and presume that they are better than other people.
Once again, Jesus Christ was the perfect example of humility.
Joseph Brickey fine art.
1 comment:
Good post, Vonnie. I do think that humility is the absence of pride, and the willingness to be submissive to the Lord's will. This is often a tall and difficult order.
vfr
Post a Comment