Boasting

Church Educational System

Elder Neal A. Maxwell cautioned us to recognize Heavenly Father’s power instead of our own: “Before enjoying the harvests of righteous efforts, let us therefore first acknowledge God’s hand. Otherwise, the rationalizations appear, and they include, ‘My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth’ (Deuteronomy 8:17). Or, we ‘vaunt’ ourselves, as ancient Israel would have done (except for Gideon’s deliberately small army), by boasting that ‘mine own hand hath saved me’ (Judges 7:2). Touting our own ‘hand’ makes it doubly hard to confess God’s hand in all things (see Alma 14:11; D&C 59:21)” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2002, 43; or Ensign, May 2002, 37).

Book of Mormon Student Manual (2009 Edition)

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