Sacrifice & Forgiveness

Today's lesson in Relief Society was fantastic! So much food for thought. It was taken from the Gospel Essentials Manual and the chapter was on sacrifice.

The instructor wanted to move everyone's thinking away from sacrifice as a something negative or hard. Someone said, "Well, is it really a sacrifice if it isn't hard?"

I thought a lot about that question during the lesson, and I kept thinking that sacrifices may seem hard in the beginning (perhaps tithing, as an example), but as we faithfully obey (sacrifice regularly) it doesn't feel hard anymore. Sacrificing is still part of it, but our growth in faith makes any burden seem light.

Marie commented on this so eloquently, that I have to write down what she said.
"The word sacrifice comes from the same root as the word sacred. So to sacrifice means to make something sacred. It has nothing to do with it being hard. We can go through the motions of being obedient, but it is not a sacrifice until our attitude and our actions have made it sacred." (I hope my memory is doing justice to her words.)

I think we stay-at-home mother's sacrifice a lot for our families. Or at least I think we give up a lot of worldly praise, recognition, & money. But Marie's words made me want to make sure that this service to my family was truly sacred in my thoughts and actions.

Sister Shumway also brought out something I'd never thought about before. Forgiveness is a sacrifice. We are giving up our anger & our desire for retribution. She talked about struggling to forgive people who had truly wronged her and with whom she WANTED to be angry - felt justified in being angry. She then heard someone say that when we don't forgive others, it's as though we have rejected the atonement of the Savior on their behalf. We are rejecting his sacrifice.

That's a sobering thought. No wonder he says, "I will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." We can't reject his sacrifice for others and expect to partake of it ourselves.

This helps me understand a little better, how the atonement can be a healing balm for the sins committed against us. The healing of our pain was part of the price he paid.

It makes me want to fully forgive and makes it seem easier to forgive those who may not even be repentant at the moment. It makes forgiveness something truly sacred as you hand that burden back to Lord without fear or reservation and let his healing begin.

I'm so thankful for the way great teachers sacrifice their time to bring the Spirit into our meetings, and feed my soul for the coming week - wonderful!