- Be thankful. Look for things to be thankful for, and focus more thoughts on why certain things deserve gratitude. Among the things to remember most often are the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the personal miracles He's given me in my life.
- Look for the good in others. Rather than thinking about my wants and needs, look first to be interested in others, and find praiseworthy things in their behavior and character. Praise them. As I do this my love for others grows.
- Repent constantly. Mistakes happen everyday. How long should I wait to apologize to God and promise to do better? As soon as I recognize the error, that is the time to repent. Repent every day, every hour, every minute as necessary.
- Seek the Lord's will. In everything I do, try to keep a prayer in my heart, seeking to do what He would have me do, regardless of my own preferences or even my own convictions.
- Pray for it. At times the response will be difficult. Other times the answer will be tender and sweet. Be ready to accept whatever answer the Lord gives--be willing to do whatever He recommends.
- Serve others. One of the best ways to improve myself is to act like I would if I were already the kind of person I want to become--practice makes perfect. Humble people are always in the service of others.
Humility brings inner peace and peace to those around you. Sometimes we are compelled to be humble because of life experiences, but the Lord is most pleased when we choose to be humble of our own free will. But gaining humility is not as easy as simply deciding not to be prideful. It takes effort. Below are some methods I've found to be helpful in building and maintaining humility:
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Pride has oft been named the universal sin. There is an unselfish pride, which is sharing joy in others' progression. Selfish pride, however, seems to be a challenge for everyone to varying degrees.
How can we identify good versus bad pride? One tell-tale sign of selfish pride is competition: "Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone." -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1960), 95. Truth is an understanding of how things really are. Intelligence has been defined as "the light of truth." All light [knowledge] is bestowed by God. Though some believe that we can obtain knowledge of truth without God, the fact is that knowledge of truth cannot come from any other source.
Thus, any time we come to a knowledge of any truth, we can know that God was the source and the benefactor of that event. Scholars often try to discredit personal knowledge that is received from God, but there is no more sure way of discovering truth than by asking the source of all truth. Why then do members of Christian denominations rely so heavily on the wisdom of gospel scholars? Every sect and faith (including atheists and agnostics) have pastors and theologians who claim to have a more correct understanding of truth because of their own study. In this way the leaders of the Christian sects are imitating the scribes and Pharisees who lived at the time of Christ. While these gospel scholars self-interestedly proclaimed their own wisdom, Christ found simple fishers and others to be his true leaders. He knew He could trust them to teach the truth not based on their own logic, but based on what God would tell them. Christ taught us plainly about the source to which we should look for truth, and it wasn't a self-proclaimed theologian: "Blessed art thou [Peter], for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." |
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