Plan your sacrifice

"Very often we plan the tasks we need to fulfill our responsibilities and achieve our goals.  Yet how often do we plan our sacrifice?  If we know what we’d do if we had only one more day to live, why not plan our day like that?  Why not eliminate what would not fill our final day and include what would?"

Since leaving college, I’ve been interested in time management.  A part of that interest I don’t understand, but another part I do.  I once disappointed my boss by forgetting an important assignment.  I felt that failure keenly and, concerned for my future career, promised to improve.

That was the start of a long encounter with time management.  Perhaps that’s why Elder Taylor G. Godoy’s recent Conference address entitled “One More Day” spoke to me.

I’m sure we’ve all encountered time management in one form or another.  But time management is really a misnomer; no one really manages time.  As much as some of us yearn to do it, you can’t create another hour in your day.  Everyone gets the same 24 hours.  What you manage, then, is yourself.  How will you choose to spend those 24 hours each day?

Sooner or later, as Elder Godoy points out, we’ll all have a "one more day" realization that we must use wisely the time we have.  Yet what impresses me most about Elder Godoy’s remarks about time management is his inclusion of sacrifice in the choices we make regarding our time.

Plan your sacrifice

Very often we plan the tasks we need to fulfill our responsibilities and achieve our goals.  Yet how often do we plan our sacrifice?  If we know what we’d do if we had only one more day to live, why not plan our day like that?  Why not eliminate what would not fill our final day and include what would?

Elder Godoy declared, “We all have a ‘today’ to live, and the key to making our day successful is to be willing to sacrifice.”  I never thought before about purposefully including sacrifice in my daily or weekly plans.  Yet it makes more and more sense the more I consider it.

I also appreciate Elder Godoy’s review of the etymology behind sacrifice:

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The word sacrifice comes from the Latin words sacer, which means “sacred,” and facere, which means “to make”—in other words, to make things sacred, to bring honor to them. . .  personal sacrifice is an invaluable force that drives our decisions and our determinations. Personal sacrifice drives our actions, our commitments, and our covenants and gives sacred things meaning.

What things do you need to make sacred in your life?  To what things do you need to bring honor?  Planning to fulfill your responsibilities and achieve your goals is great.  But deliberately planning to include sacrifice is greater; these can enrich your life and provide personal strength.

Spend the time

Much of what we know we should do — daily prayer, daily studying the scriptures, attending church, etc. — is a sacrifice.  The time we spend in these worthwhile activities is always amply rewarded.  But these aren’t the only sacrifices we can embrace.

Temple attendance has always been a sacrifice for me.  I’ve lived where the nearest house of the Lord required me to drive two or more hours.  Certainly attending the temple under those conditions represented a great sacrifice for me.  Yet I now live within a half hour of two temples, and I find regularly attending either one of them difficult.  So many other needful activities press upon me that attending the house of the Lord is a real sacrifice.

Performing the family history research that supports temple work is another sacrifice we can intentionally choose, as is also holding weekly family home evening.  Many LDS singles forego FHE, viewing it as something for those with families.  But I’ve found using Family History Evening to spell FHE is a sacrifice that brings many blessings, including a strengthened faith that comes from living all of the restored gospel I can live.

Elder Godoy declared, “The sacrifices our loved ones make for us refresh us like cool water in the middle of the desert. Such sacrifice brings hope and motivation.”  I believe that applies to sacrifices made on both sides of the veil.

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See one more day to be faithful

As wonderful as those sacrifices are, Elder Godoy rightly remarked that “any sacrifice we make is small compared to the sacrifice of the Son of God.” Because of His ultimate sacrifice, the great plan of redemption is operative in the lives of all who will embrace it.

Elder Godoy asked, “How can we honor that infinite sacrifice? Each day we can remember that we have one more day to live and be faithful.”  I love that response!  We have the days we have because of the Savior’s sacrifice.  How appropriate that we respond to His gift of time with our own gift of a broken heart, a contrite spirit, and faithfulness to all our covenants!

And how appropriate was Elder Godoy in quoting President Howard W. Hunter.

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Mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. … Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. … Speak your love and then speak it again.

Consider the sacrifices the Spirit whispers to you that you should make in your life.  Then plan your sacrifice.  Consciously dedicate the time needed to make sacred that needful act and give honor to it.  When you do, you’ll give honor to your own life and receive for your sacrifice the blessings of heaven.  And that will bring more joy in your journey.

You can listen to the monologue from today's episode of Joy In The Journey Radio here.  Please also feel free to continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.  Want to hear more?  Listen to the whole show by going to the show page for this episode!