"Where Is the Pavilion?"

     I really enjoy this talk and it has helped me significantly with how I have viewed my relationship with God. It is titled, "Where Is the Pavilion?"
     He begins by saying, "The pavilion that seems to intercept divine aid does not cover God but occasionally covers us. God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than a feeling of 'Thy will be done,' create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time." It is interesting to think about how much pride it takes to think that it is not our fault we don't hear from God. I am guilty of it myself sometimes. I then have to ask myself, why would God hide from us? He loves us. It only makes sense that we are the ones too proud to take down our "pavilion."
     He tells us that, "We remove the pavilion when we feel and pray, 'Thy will be done' and 'in Thine own time.' His time should be soon enough for us since we know that He wants only what is best." It is as simple as being patient. God knows what we NEED. Just as any good parent he will give us what we need when we need it, and the things that we may WANT may not be things that we will get quite yet or maybe not ever.
     He gives a couple of examples where the desires of men were not fulfilled in their time table, but as God promised they were fulfilled in His time.  I conclude with this, "For any of you who now feel that He is hard to reach, I testify that the day will come that we all will see Him face to face. Just as there is nothing now to obscure His view of us, there will be nothing to obscure our view of Him."

"Beware of Pride"

     Ok so before you all discount this talk just by the title I want you to just take a look at it anyway. Besides, if you are feeling guilty about it already, it is probably a good thing for you to read...haha. The title of the talk I am going to share with you is "Beware of Pride." Surprisingly, it was not as harsh as I was expecting it to be.
     It starts off by warning us of pride and telling us of the destroying power it has. There are three parts I want to quote near the begining that say, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man…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), "The proud stand more in fear of men’s judgment than of God’s judgment. 'What will men think of me?' weighs heavier than 'What will God think of me?'" and "Pride is ugly. It says, 'If you succeed, I am a failure.'" He goes into depth about these statements, but they all hit home with me by saying how when we are prideful we forget God. It's really as simple as that.
     The best part of this talk is when he talks about humility. He says the antidote for pride is humility, meekness, and submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. A common misconception is that to be humble you have to be able to put yourself down, but in reality, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” (C.S. Lewis) Now, I don't want you all to think that you are awful people, because if you are anything like me you probably thought you were the most prideful person on the earth. (There is even pride in thinking that...haha) However, I do want you to understand how destructive pride can be and how you can reverse it. I really love this video on unselfish service, which teaches me how to be more humble through service.

     I want you all to think of what things you can do to help get rid of your prideful desires. "Let us choose to be humble. We can do it. I know we can."

Humility

     The next Christlike Attribute is Humility. I think a good way to understand humility is to take a look at its opposite, which is pride. "Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing. The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means 'hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.' It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us." -Ezra Taft Benson (May 1989 Ensign, Beware of Pride.) Pride is also competitive. If you are prideful you seek to have more and presume that you are better than others. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Romans 8:16.) If we are all children of God, how could any one of us possibly be greater than another? God loves each of us individually as His son or daughter we should all learn to humble ourselves and love one another.
     "For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
     And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
     And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another." (Mosiah 4:19-21.) If we can humble ourselves and understand that we really have nothing in this life, save it be through God, we will be far better off than we were when we worried about what was "ours".
     When we are humble we are happy and have an appreciation for the life we have. We understand that we are completely reliant on the Lord. We appreciate our talents and abilities that we have been given and acknowledge that they are gifts from God. It is not a sign of weakness, timidity, or fear; it is an indication that we know where our true strength lies. We can be both humble and fearless. We can be both humble and courageous.