Looking away....
“Break it up you two, you’ve been married for 19 years get over it”. These were the words recently expressed by my 18 year old daughter who got caught refereeing her parent’s disagreement. Why did we disagree? What was so important that we lost sight of peace and harmony in our home? The answer, I don’t remember. But why did it take so long to get over? Pride. We let our pride get in the way of our relationship. We should have stopped long before it got to the point where we were hotly disagreeing.President Ezra Taft Benson said, “Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It drives many of our family members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts”. Through our pride we let the adversary come into our homes and our relationships. We let anger guide our thoughts, words, and deeds. It’s when we are caught up in our pride that the most damage is done to the ones we love the most.
Turning towards each other...
Pride can manifest itself in our marriage through arguments, disagreements, and fights. It manifests through pitting our will above our spouse. Through sabotaging their efforts for happiness. My husband loves to play basketball. As a newlywed I wondered why would he want to leave me even one night a week, to play basketball ? I felt that he should be with me. I argued with him about why he should go and did it really need to happen every Thursday night? It wasn’t until the stake playoffs that I understood what this sport meant to him. He enjoyed being with friends, his excitement and fun for the game brought him so much joy. I felt I was being selfish and prideful keeping him away from something he enjoyed so much. I decided to make Thursday night my night for finding out what it was that I like to do. It became my favorite night of the week. My husband always came home sweaty and happy and I was discover new hobbies that I enjoyed as well.
President Benson said:
“the antidote for pride is humility- meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. As we seek to humble ourselves our relationships with God and with others will be strengthened.
Short video on Forgiveness by President James E. Faust
