President Ezra Taft Benson taught that “God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble.”6 Of course, it is far better to humble ourselves. The progress toward perfection is faster, and we bypass the “hard lessons” that pride and worldliness thrust upon us. Humility is a prerequisite to faith and wisdom.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave us this assessment of the perils of pride: “My beloved fellow disciples of the gentle Christ, should we not hold ourselves to a higher standard? … We must realize that all of God’s children wear the same jersey. Our team is the brotherhood of man.
“When we become obsessed with our status; when we focus on our own importance, power, or reputation; when we dwell upon our public image and believe our own press clippings—that’s when the trouble begins; that’s when pride begins to corrupt… .
“We are not given the priesthood so that we can take our bows and bask in praise. We are here to roll up our sleeves and go to work… . We seek not our own honor but give praise and glory to God… .
“We seek to do the will of the Father, just as the Savior did… . We give all glory to the Father, just as the Savior did… .
“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… .
“The moment we stop obsessing with ourselves and lose ourselves in service, our pride diminishes and begins to die… .
“There are so many ways we could be serving. We have no time to become absorbed in ourselves.”7