Elder Kim B. Clark, 15th President of BYU-Idaho, came to campus and spoke during the devotional last Tuesday. For those of you who don't know, President Clark served as the Dean of the Harvard Business School before being called to BYU-I by President Gordon B. Hinckley. I also read about President Clark in the book, "The Mormon Way of Doing Business." Needless to say, he is very impressive.
President Clark's discussion focussed on pride. He said, "Pride is at the heart of Satan's war on God." He went on to talk about why we need to be especially vigilant and aware of the Satan's use of pride in our lives--calling it "the great lie." After talking about, what could be any of us, menitoning the interaction between "pride and prosperity," he spoke of the many people that are constantly sucked into the deadly trap of pride. People like me and you.
"Like me?" You ask. Yes, listen to the Red Flags of Pride he highlighted: "Do you find yourself critiquing the talks in Sacrament meeting? Are you critical of others? Do you look down at others? Do you scorn or ridicule them? When adversity strikes, do you hear a voice inside that says, 'Why me?' Do you react to prophetic counsel by ignoring it, or being upset by it, or interpreting it to suit your own desires? When you do something good, do you hear a voice inside congratulating yourself? Do you feel self-gratification and a sense of importance in your knowledge and skill? If someone you know receives something good, do you hear a voice inside saying, 'What about me?' Do you find ways to let others to know of your success without appearing to boast? If someone corrects a mistake you made, do you feel defensive and resentful? When someone does something that creates inconvenience for you, do you feel annoyed?"
*Deep breath* I've got a lot of work to do--these examples are only a small sample of Satan's lies. President Clark went on, "We need to recognize them for what they are, the echoes of the great lie." You can listen to his talk here, if want to hear the four patterns he gave to overcome this.
1 comment:
I've been reading The Miracle of Forgiveness and it stresses those same concepts over and over and tells me over and over to focus on my own salvation. It's humbling, but isn't it great that we have such great church leaders to keep us on track when we don't even realize we need it!
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