Modern Day Sacrifices

If you were asked by our Heavenly Father to sacrifice something, or in other words, giving something up, what would be the hardest thing for you to give up? Do you think you could let go of it? Why or why not?

Our Heavenly Father doesn't require us to sacrifice animals like in olden days, but He still requires sacrifice from us. In what ways do we hand over things to Him in today's world?

One of the biggest things I can think of is your TIME. You often hear that "time is money!" Let's think of how much time we are willing to give to the Lord each week.

• Sleeping 8hr/night is 33% of your weekly time
• Eating 15 min meals is just over 3% 
• Taking 15 min showers every day is just over 3%
• Your 5 day work commute of 20 minutes each way is just under 2%
• Working 8 hr days 5 days/week is almost 24%
• Working out for 30min/day is just over 2%

You've used 67% of your time with just these. You have 33% of your time left to use for yourself or for giving to the Lord. What can you use it for?

• If you go to church for 3 hours on Sunday, that is less than 2%
• Reading your scriptures for 15 minutes/day is just over 1%
• Visiting with other church members or friends to check up on them and fellowship them is just over 2% for each person if you only visited with them for 30 minutes. And that wouldn't be each week. If you visited 6 people each month for 30 minutes (that is less than 2 people a week), that would only be 3 hrs/month or 0.4% of your monthly time. 
• Reading a novel for 1 hour each night before bed is just over 4%

How much time do you suppose that you are on that smartphone, watching tv, or playing video games? 1 hour each day? 2 hours? 4 hours? 4 hours each day is 16% of your time each week! That's half your free time.

With our time, we can give of ourselves through service. We can share our talents through our callings or service to our church or our community.

The biggest sacrifice that has been given was by our Savior who died for us. Let's think about someone who was also asked to give a great sacrifice. In Genesis 22, Abraham was asked to give his most important thing to the Lord, his son Isaac. And he would have if not for the angel that stopped him just in time. Maybe you are asking yourself why the Lord asked such a huge sacrifice from Abraham? I love this quote by George Q. Cannon that explains it so well.

Why did the Lord ask such things of Abraham? Because, knowing what his future would be and that he would be the father of an innumerable posterity, he was determined to test him. God did not do this for His own sake; for He knew by His foreknowledge what Abraham would do; but the purpose was to impress upon Abraham a lesson, and to enable him to attain unto knowledge that he could not obtain in any other way. That is why God tries all of us. It is not for His own knowledge; for He knows all things beforehand. He knows all your lives and everything you will do. But He tries us for our own good, that we may know ourselves. … He required Abraham to submit to this trial because He intended to give him glory, exaltation and honor; He intended to make him a king and a priest, to share with Himself the glory, power and dominion which He exercised” (George Q. Cannon, in Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 66).

One question that I'd like for you to ponder about today is what you are sacrificing in your life to give to the Lord? 

Have you set aside time to ponder and study the scriptures? Do you take a few minutes each morning and before bed to talk to Him through prayer? Are you willing to accept any church callings and perform them? Do you go to church each week? Are you paying your tithing 100%? 

These are just a few questions to help you answer the question. Maybe you have others you are asking yourself. Think them through as see what it is that you can be sacrificing to the Lord this week. 

How to Lighten Each Others Burdens

In Elder Hugo Montoya's October 2015 General Conference talk "Tested and Temped -- but Helped", he gives 4 ways we can lighten our burdens when we help others.

1. Go the Second Mile
2. Smile at others
3. Express compassion
4. Invite others to come to church

When asked to to do something, we should prepared before we do it. Prepare yourself spiritually before going to church, repent before partaking of the Sacrament, look for and print out family names to bring to the temple to work on, prepare your lesson before you have to teach it. Go the extra mile and put forth effort in what you are giving of yourself. 

When I was a kid, an old friend told me to "Smile! It's good for your complexion!" I believe that. When we smile, His love shines through us to others. So...go on and smile!

When we see someone suffering, we can help them by helping to lift that burden. Not by taking away the burden, but by helping them better endure it. Bringing meals? Being a listening ear? Sacrificing time to be there for them? Showing is doing.

The opportunity to repent of our sins can be done daily. But actually accessing the Atonement is done on Sunday when we are at church partaking of the Sacrament bread and water. That is when we can be wiped clean like when we were baptized and let the Atonement work on us. This is the whole reason why we attend church in the first place. The most important part of our church services IS the sacrament. Like the fruit of the tree in Lehi's dream, it is sweet to the taste and desirable above all. We should share this with those we love and invite them. 

I'm not perfect on these. That's okay. But what will I do with these words of counsel? That's what is important. Will I hear these words or will I listen to them and act upon them? Acting upon these words shows I understand them and is a witness that I want to do what is commanded of me -- "Ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light." (Mosiah 18:8)

Eye Single to the Glory of God

"Generally speaking, “an eye single to the glory of God” means sacrifice. It means that instead of endlessly doing what we want to do, we have to do what the Lord wants us to do, but we have to do it in his way when he wants us to do it."

--Hartman Rector Jr.,, "Sacrifice Still Brings Forth Blessings", Ensign, Dec. 1971, 64