A few weeks ago in Relief Society we had a lesson on President Benson’s talk
entitled “Beware of Pride”. I brought up the point that I had always been
confused by his statement that there is no such thing as righteous pride. Ever
since I read and studied that talk more than twenty years ago it has bothered
and confused me. Aren’t we supposed to be proud of our accomplishments? Proud
of our kids? Proud of each other? But, here is a prophet of God saying that
there is no such thing as righteous pride! What? I’ve never been able to wrap
my head around this idea. But, he must be right. He’s a prophet, isn’t he?
It just so happens that in my current study of The Book of
Mormon I’m on the search for any messages about joy. Every time I come across
the concept of joy I mark it. I’ve also been looking for quotes from prophets
and other leaders of the church on joy and writing them in my scriptures. I’ve
truly enjoyed trying to find the joy in the scriptures and it has helped me
find the joy in my own life. It has also lead me to a deeper understanding of
President Benson’s talk on pride.
Just a day or two after our RS lesson on President Benson’s
talk I sat down to study Alma 26. When Ammon begins to glory in the Lord and
the success they’d been having as missionaries his brother, Aaron, tells him to
be careful and not to get carried away in boasting (or pride). Ammon then tells
him he’s not boasting about himself. He’s stating the joy he feels in Lord and
in their success. He’s rejoicing because of the great good that the Lord has
accomplished through them in bringing so many of their brethren to the Lord. He
says, “…have we not great reason to rejoice?” (vs 13) Verse 16 is my favorite,
in it he says, “let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will
rejoice, for our joy is full…who can glory too much in the Lord?...I cannot say
the smallest part which I feel.” There is also the wonderful classic scripture
that states, “…men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25)
I think President Benson was trying to teach us something. Maybe
he was trying to get us to push past the worldly emotion of pride and experience
true godlike joy. So when we want to say that we are proud of ourselves, or our
kids, or of anything else for that matter what we should really be saying and
feeling deeply is that we’ve found joy or that they bring us joy! Maybe we can
experience this godly emotion more often when we make an effort to find joy in
our lives and see it for what it is. Don’t your accomplishments, or your
children, or your friends bring you joy?
