Regardless of the time the Lord, in His wisdom, determines to grant each of us, of one thing we can be sure: we all have a “today” to live, and the key to making our day successful is to be willing to sacrifice.
Taylor G. Godoy, "One More Day", General Conference, April 2018
I've been thinking a lot about sacrificing. First of all, the word itself is derived from the latin words "sacer", which means "sacred" and "facere", which means "to make". Sacrifice, then, literally means to make sacred. When we sacrifice, we are making ourselves sacred. We are making ourselves holy.
There are two types of sacrifice that we can give. One, is personal sacrifice...you know, giving up of something that we need or desire to better ourselves or our situation, like money, food, habitual tasks, proclivities, etc. It's essentially elevating ourselves above our natural man tendencies. We are putting our spiritual selves before our physical selves. Personal sacrifice brings blessings. Personal sacrifice makes us sacred and holy.
The second type of sacrifice is giving up something for someone else. We give of our time, talents, money, experience, expertise, possessions, etc., to help others who need it or to lift them to a higher plane. Sacrificing for someone else is completely unselfish and shows Heavenly Father where our heart really is. Sacrificing for someone else makes them better, but, in the process, makes us better too. Afterall, sacrificing for others, it's like we are sacrifing for the Lord Himself. Sacrifice brings blessings. Sacrifice makes us sacred and holy.
Remember, we only have today. Use it wisely. Use it to better yourself and better someone else.