Moment With Betty

The word sacrifice comes from the Latin word “sacrificium.” It combines the words sacer, which means something set apart, and facere, which means to make.

Making sacrifices is a charitable act which anyone who loves himself/ herself, her neighbour and God should do.  Even though the thought of making sacrifices can sometimes be scary, many a time it could be selfish when people want to get something out of it or use it to reach important goals. However, it’s unlikely that one will achieve anything significant without making sacrifices and that is why highly successful people understand and apply this concept to become better achievers.

Today, the word sacrifice is used when referring to giving up something in the short term to gain something better in the long term or giving up something of a lower value to receive something of a higher value. Be that as it may, the sacrifices that people make reveal their commitment to the result they want.

Romans 23: 5 says,” God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”. As we understood in the bible, Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross for a sin He did not commit just to save the world from the original sin committed by our first parents, Adam and Eve. This sacrifice was done without expecting anything in return personally but just to carry out the wish of His father, God. Point 509 of the Way written by JoseMaria Escriva, stated that Mary is the teacher of the sacrifice that is hidden and silent! She sacrificed so much for her son and remained in the background and never complained.

Making sacrifices is when you give up something for someone, when one sacrifices for the family. This could be very challenging particularly, when one does things that one never imagined of doing before, things that may be uncomfortable or unfamiliar to you but sometimes sacrifice can be the unexpected answer to family challenge.”  Often times new couples find themselves in this situation usually at the early stage of marriage. There is usually the case of sacrificing something to have peace and harmony in the house.   I always advise newlyweds to be ready to make sacrifices at the early stage of their marriage, say between six months and one year.

 Considering the fact that these are two people coming from different backgrounds and with different formation. There could be the issue of one partner moving from one location to another to join the spouse, or a simple issue as one partner not been able to sleep with lights on or off. Or even the church to attend as a family in the case where they both worshipped at different parishes before marriage. Or issues such as what side of the bed to sleep. Without making sacrifices, their differences may seem to be irreconcilable but by focusing on sacrificing for each other, the couple will gain the courage to move forward in their relationship and they will learn that mutual love grows as they serve and sacrifice for each other.

Making sacrifices is a good thing if it is made willingly and not for a selfish interest but for the sake of promoting the well-being of a partner, family member or to sustain a relationship. Just as a mother sacrifices her sleep in other to feed her new born baby in the middle of the night.  It is pertinent to know that we need to make a lot of sacrifices to keep our lives going and I believe that what we really need is to always remind ourselves of the truth that was spoken by Jesus as stated in Mathew 10: 39, “He that finds his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it” and also as Henry Ward Beecher said,” In this world, it is not what we take up but what we give up that makes us rich”