Sacrifice

“Each of us should pray earnestly for the heavenly help to make those sacrifices that will sanctify our relationships. As we enter our homes, we can pause to beseech God to grant us grace, goodness, mercy, compassion, and patience. We can ask Father to help us see our partner and his or her struggles with the loving-kindness with which He views them. In so doing, we place our time, our minds and our hearts on the altar. That is the ultimate offering, the required sacrifice.”

-Goddard, H. Wallace. Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage. Pg. 52.

In today’s world we have become so obsessed with making sure our own needs are being met that often times the term sacrifice comes with a negative connotation. Sacrificing for your loved ones is actually a very good thing as it brings you closer together and closer to God. I want my own marriage to bare the fruits of sacrifice. I want my marriage to last, not only during my mortal life, but for all eternity. I believe that as I make continuous efforts to sacrifice my own needs or desires for the needs and desires of my husband than our marriage will be sanctified, like Goddard stated in the quote above.

In studying this topic I have been thinking about what I could sacrifice for my husband. I have written down specific things that I can give up to put my husband first. In doing this I know that I will ultimately come closer to my Heavenly Father as I strive to become a better person. I love this quote by Elder Joe J. Christensen from the Marriage and Family Relationship Participant’s Study Guide, by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said,

“Avoid ‘ceaseless pinpricking.’ Don’t be too critical of each other’s faults. Recognize that none of us is perfect. We all have a long way to go to become as Christlike as our leaders have urged us to become. ‘Ceaseless pinpricking,’ as President Spencer W. Kimball called it, can deflate almost any marriage. … Generally each of us is painfully aware of our weaknesses, and we don’t need frequent reminders. Few people have ever changed for the better as a result of constant criticism or nagging. If we are not careful, some of what we offer as constructive criticism is actually destructive” (p. 19)

Sometimes I find myself doing this, and it is so needless. I know how aware of my own faults I am and how much I hate it when they are pointed out to me, I should not do this to my husband. So this is one of the things I am going to stop doing, something I am going to sacrifice for my husband and our marriage. I am so grateful for the atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that because of Him I can put off the natural man like we are taught to do in Mosiah 3:19 from the Book of Mormon. I know that through Him I can change and become a better person. I am so very thankful for that and so happy because of that.