Sacrifice

What is Sacrifice?  I thought a lot about it this morning!

There is a stanza in a hymn "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven;" Praise to the Man, text by William W. Phelps, music is a Scottish folk song, Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, pg. 27, 1985

If the prophet Joseph Smith sacrificed his life for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that was no small effort on his part, we can sacrifice even a little bit every day.

In the case of married couples, either one or the other partner sacrifices more.  It is a life of giving (unselfishly) and receiving (gladly).  Say a partner in a marriage is the more dominant personality - he or she may pretty much have their say or their wish - it's usually stronger than the wish of the other partner.  As people mature though, the dominant person often will sacrifice their time to do something for the other person.  It may be because the less dominant partner has given much of their time, effort, and talents to their spouse or their children, grandchildren.  A great example of this is my husband, Gerry!

For years and years while our children were growing up in the home, Gerry sometimes cooked a gourmet meal for dinnertime.  He would often dirty just about every pot and pan and serving tray in the house.  Because he did the cooking, it was my responsibility to see to the clean up.  Sometimes I had the help of the children and sometimes I didn't.  Rather than hear them moan and complain, I would just do up the dishes without asking for help.  It may or may not have been the right thing to do, but I think our children have grown up just fine.  They have families of their own and they can choose how to run their household.  I know that our married sons do help with the domestic responsibilities in their homes.  It brings me GREAT JOY!

Now that we have been "Empty Nesters" for a few years, Gerry will often help cook the meat or main course for dinner, while I prepare the salad or side dish.  Almost every morning, Gerry prepares our Breakfast Smoothie.  It has to have just the right ingredients and amounts in it.  For lunch, when Gerry's home, he will usually prepare some version of an egg burrito.  He experiments a lot!  When we don't have time for that, we will sometimes have a 30-second meal replacement drink.

There are more examples, but what I've mentioned are enough for this post!

Posted by Christy Larsen