From chapter seven of Elder Dallin H. Oaks book “Life’s Lessons learned”:
I had to learn two lessons about humility; first, what it is and second, how to seek it and keep it.
Humility is essentially a consciousness of one’s personal inadequacies. It is therefore a catalyst for learning. It is the opposite of pride. My favorite illustration of this truth is Benjamin Franklin’s journal description to overcome his natural tendency toward pride by acquiring the virtue of humility. After considerable efforts he concluded that there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.” For, he continued, even if I could have completely overcome it, I should be proud of my humility”1
If we are weak and humble enough to receive correction and counsel, we can be guided to put our strengths into perspective and use them for the benefit of others rather than the prideful aggrandizement of self. “Be thou humble,” the Lord has said , “and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers. (D&C 112:10).
As for the practice of humility as the natural offset to pride, I have had different challenges at different times of my life.
When I was a teenager I saw things around me mostly in terms of what they meant to me personally. I thought it was all about me, to use an apt description I learned later. I viewed school events, athletics, and other activities, and family and church responsibilities mostly in terms of what they meant to me personally. I desired to be complimented. As I have read things that I wrote at the time—now more than sixty years ago—I realize that I had a selfish view of myself in the world and very little humility.
Humility can be learned and marriage and children are great teachers. Church callings are too. As a young adult, I began to see others and those around me in terms of what I could give rather than what I could get. Selfishness receded and humility took root.
As a student and as a university teacher, I experienced that fact the process of education—especially in the college and graduate level—impresses one with all one does not know, and that encourages humility. But the acquisition of knowledge and its certification (degrees and so on) bring recognition and feelings of self-sufficiency that soon work against the humility by which they were acquired. A powerful scripture describes the result: “When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not to the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not”, (2 Nephi 9:28).
I have been profoundly affected by that teaching and comforted by the next verse: “But to be learned is good if they hearken to the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 929).
I have been favored to learn from the humility of many humble, well-educated Latter-day Saints. During most of my service at Brigham Young University, I was also blessed with the close association of President Spencer W. Kimball. The self-effacing and tender outreach of this remarkable man made him a great role model of humility.
Church callings. especially highly visible callings, pose new challenges to seeking and maintaining humility. In his assigned charge to the newly called members of the Quorum of the Twelve, Olive Cowdery included this warning: “I therefore warn you to cultivate great humility; for I know the pride of the human heart. Beware lest the flatterers lift you up; beware lest your affections be captivated by worldly objects.’
Similarly, in and 1839 sermon, the Prophet Joseph Smith gave this warning to the Twelve: “Let the Twelve and all Saints be humble, and not exalted, and beware of pride and not seek to excel one above another, but act for each other’s good and pray for one another, and honor brother.”3
In my current position, my greatest stimulus to humility is seeing other General Authorities doing many things—such as giving talks in general conference or offering counsel on matters being discussed—with far greater skill and wisdom than I could do them.
Each of us has personal strengths that can detract from our humility. If we engage in self-congratulation over those strengths, we lose the protection of humility and are vulnerable to Satan’s using our strengths to produce our downfall. 4 In contrast, we are humble and teachable, hearkening to the commandments of God, the counsel of His leaders, and the promptings of His Spirit we can be guided in how to use our Spiritual gifts,our accomplishments, and all our other strengths for righteousness.
——Elder Dallin H. Oaks, (Now Prophet, Seer, Revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). . . . .See President Oak’s book “: Life’s Lessons Learned, p. 27-29
