Question
Dear Gramps,
I know that humility is a Christlike quality to have and many have the intentions of acquiring it. How do we obtain it? What is needed to acquire this trait?
Confused
Answer
Dear Confused,
Humility is merely the trait of recognizing and acknowledging things as they really are. King Mosiah put it this way-
“I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another–
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another–I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.” (Mosiah 2:20-25)
The opposite of humility is pride. Pride is arrogating to one’s self the attributes that were given him of the Lord, as we learn from Mosiah. No matter how great one thinks he is, there are a host of others with greater qualities and abilities than he has. So the proud person chooses to compare himself only with those that he somehow deems are inferior to himself. Humility is merely the trait of recognizing and acknowledging things as they really are.
Gramps
