The Pride Cycle

Last night, as we were reading from 3 Nephi 7, it struck Mom and I as odd how frequently the Nephites went from being righteous to being wicked in a short space of time. It seems like every time the Nephites become righteous and start to get blessings for being righteous, they forget God and start being wicked again. Helman 12: 1-3 reads:

And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him. 

Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity. 

And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

This is unfortunately true. And, come to think of it, it may be part of the reason why bad things sometimes happen to good people - to keep them good. Of course, that's just a wild guess. I'm probably wrong. But, sticking to what I know, people do tend to forget how much God is helping them when they find out that they're doing well. I believe I recently posted about a time when the Nephites boasted of their own strength when they were winning battles, so God left them to their own strength, and they started losing again. It's an example of the Pride Cycle that we hear of from time to time:

People are righteous, and God blesses them.
Because of their blessings and, as Helaman put it, "because of their ease," they begin to forget God.
The People grow wicked and God starts withholding His blessings from them.
People struggle without God's blessings, and they eventually turn to God for help.
As people repent and become righteous again, God blesses them again, and the cycle continues.

If you continue reading from Helaman 12, Helaman goes on to lament how foolish people are to not obey God, even when God is blessing them, and I frequently feel like lamenting that with him. It seems that too many people are stuck in the same endless cycle; being blessed, then forgetting where those blessings came from, ignoring God, losing the blessings, struggling, and maybe, if they ever wise up, turning to God again with a renewed effort to be righteous.

The good news is that we can, theoretically, break the cycle by choosing to remain righteous even when we're blessed. And the trick to breaking the cycle may be Gratitude. If we thank God for our many blessings, we may be able to remind ourselves that all our blessings came from Him. And if we remember that, we may feel an increased desire to thank God by keeping His commandments. If we continue to keep His commandments, He'll continue to bless us, and we can thank Him for the continued blessings by continuing to keep the commandments. And that cycle can also be endless.