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Pride in Your Marriage



          The pride cycle in the Book of Mormon has been a topic that I have greatly enjoyed studying as I have aged and become more familiar with the scriptures. It amazes me how time and time again, group of people in the scriptures, whether it be the Nephites, the Lamanites, or even rulers like King David, can continually make the same mistakes that ultimately lead them to the same, pending doom. As a reader of the Book of Mormon, it is very easy to look at their, for a lack of a better word, stupidity and think, “How can they not see how damaging this is to their ultimate salvation?” With that being said, I have found that it is not quite as easy to look onto my marriage and say the same thing about myself when I know I am being prideful.

          Upon reading in “Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage” this week, there was a particular paragraph that stood out to me – perhaps because I often relate to it:

“God has graciously given each of us an early warning system. When we are feeling irked, annoyed, or irritated with our spouse, we have our backs turned toward heaven. We are guilty of pride. In a spiritual sense we are saying to our spouses, ‘You are not meeting my needs the way I would like them met. Don’t you realize that is your job?! Your every act is to be dedicated to my happiness. Now hop to it!’”

          I can say that I have never once actually said words like that to my husband, but I would be lying if I said that I have never thought up things that were very close to the same lines. I have been married for about two years and after seeing just how much pride tries to take hold of your mind, I can better understand why the pride cycle was so prevalent in the scriptures. I work every single day to assure that I do not let my own pride get in the way of the biggest blessing my life – my marriage. Though that is the case, I still need to consistently work on it. After all, isn’t that what marriage is all about? Continuing and persevering toward perfection even if we don’t quite get there?

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