Sacrifice

Having just read Dallin H. Oaks' talk from April 2012 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entitled "Sacrifice," I've been thinking a lot about, well, sacrifice over the last few days. Some people have been baffled at why we "Mormons" do what we do. I thought Elder Oaks summarized it nicely:

I believe that Latter-day Saints who give unselfish service and sacrifice in worshipful imitation of our Savior adhere to eternal values to a greater extent than any other group of people. Latter-day Saints look on their sacrifices of time and means as a part of their schooling and qualifying for eternity. This is a truth revealed in the Lectures on Faith, which teach that “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation. … It [is] through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life.”

(Emphasis my own.) What do we sacrifice? I think what is "sacrificed" is personal; basically we sacrifice our "worldly" desires or our "natural man" cravings for what we want more - becoming more like the Savior. I think this is so often misunderstood as us being blindly obedient. But when we focus on WHY we do these things, it is a beautiful gift from us and to us. The WHY makes all the difference.