I had a talk in church today. Topic was "How being humble leads us to obedience".
The intro to my talk:
Looking for lasting happiness? Want better relationships with others? Need more of the Spirit in your life? Then here's an important key. Be Humble. Remember the Six B's from President Gordon B. Hinckley's November 2000 address to the youth? Be grateful - Be smart - Be clean - Be true - Be humble - Be prayerful.
An excerpt from my talk:
Somewhere in that spirit is the key to freedom. We should put ourselves in a position before our Father in Heaven and say, individually, 'I do not want to do what I want to do. I want to do what Thou wouldst have me do.' And because what we are does affect what we do, our submissiveness will be reflected in our reverence, gratitude, and willingness to accept callings, counsel, and correction.
I remember when my daughter was in Primary and Brother Mattoon was the chorister. After having the calling for awhile, he was released. Audrey said on the car ride home from church that she was sad because "Brother Mattoon was let go". How often do we feel that way when we are released from a calling? How often do we wish "our will" were in place when callings are issued? I have had a recent personal experience with this very issue. I thought I had a "safe-from-being-released" calling since I played the organ during Sacrament meeting. While I knew our ward has other wonderful organists (Dan, Pauline & Jessie), I knew that Pauline was moving soon and not a lot of our ward members play the organ - or just keep quiet about it! But then I was called to be the Primary pianist and released as one of the organists. I too felt like I was "let go" and was not sure I would enjoy the primary calling. Boy, was I wrong! I absolutely have enjoyed getting to know both the children and adults in primary, and especially working with Brittney, our primary chorister. I love listening to the things the kids share and watching them learn about the gospel. I am glad "my will" did not prevail.
Another helpful perspective on humility can be obtained by examining its antithesis - pride. Just as humility leads to other virtues such as modesty, teach-able-ness, and un-pretentiousness, pride leads to many other vices. President Ezra Taft Benson delivered a conference address declaring that pride is "the universal sin, the great vice." He taught that pride is essentially competitive in nature and made reference to this quote from C.S. Lewis: "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 everyone 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."
Speaking about competitiveness...When I was in high school I played the flute and piccolo. Our band director allowed players to compete for 1st chair in our respective sections. The moment I was in 1st chair, my arch nemesis Shelley would challenge me for the spot. This included playing a specific passage and allowing the band director to decide who was best. We spent a lot of time my Sophomore year of high school playing musical chairs between 1st and 2nd spots. I did not like Shelley! Someone gave me some advice to be kind and say only nice things about her. Basically humble myself. Guess what? Shelley and I became fast friends, found out we had much in common, and spent a great deal of time together during our remaining high school years.
Consider the climate that would exist within a marriage or family - or any organization, for that matter - if through genuine humility mistakes were freely admitted and forgiven, if we were not afraid to praise others for fear they might gain on us, and if all were able to listen as well as we now verbalize.
"Being humble means recognizing we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others." - Gordon B. Hinkley
After church someone came over and said "I can't believe how wonderful your talk was. Unbelievably awesome".
