The Benefit of Sacrifice

Last week in Sharing Time, several people came in and talked about how they or their ancestors were blessed for choosing the right. I was struck by 3 women who each talked of how they chose to make and keep covenants even though their parents did not support them. Temple weddings were held without moms and dads. Kids went to church on their own, without family support. Young adults left other churches to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Knowing this about each of these women made me love and admire them even more than I already did.

This morning, I was thinking about the power of their words for the children who listened and I was struck with something entirely different. My mom was one of those women. Her parents weren't active for a long time. She pushed and encouraged them to get it together to be sealed as a family, but it didn't really stick. Somehow, it seems the last time they were in the temple was for my parents' sealing. By the time my aunt got married, they were, again, no longer active and they never really were my entire life. My mom wanted more. She searched for more. High on her list of attributes for a spouse was a man who honored the priesthood and came from a strong gospel family. She found those things in my dad and as a result of her trailblazing, my life has been blessed with the opportunity to make sacred covenants and be fully supported in making and keeping them. While I spent my youth in an area with few members of the church and with many opportunities to share the gospel and explain my choices, I never, ever, had to do that at home. At home, I was safe in the knowledge, like the primary song that 'mine is a home where every hour is blessed by the strength of priesthood power.' I have never taken that for granted. I know what a rare blessing the strength of my parents' covenants is for me and mine. But I had never really thought much about the sacrifice end of it for my mother. I always knew how much she valued a strong gospel home and how she had actively gone looking for it. But, that vital search came at a cost of separation from her parents, to a certain extent. Which could not have been easy. Though they never really returned to church, there wasn't animosity, so I hope, now that they're gone, they are grateful, too, for the choices and sacrifices my mom made to ensure their family continued in the tradition of their ancestors instead of in their own lack of gospel commitment.

Each week, I teach really important things to my primary class. They struggle. We struggle and yesterday was no picnic. I stopped and told them that I try every week to make the lesson fun and engaging and even to bring a game. But that we are there to learn the most important tools for their lives--how to make and keep sacred covenants, how to recognize and embrace truth and how to honor the sacrifices of those who made these truths and blessings available for us, so that we can be happy with the people we most love forever. Lessons I need to remember myself.