And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal. (Alma 34:14)
We are familiar with how the principle of animal sacrifice
in the Old Testament was to point Israel to the sacrifice to the sacrifice of
Christ. We also should be fairly
familiar with how the sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit can point
us to Christ. But what if we also
apply the principle of sacrifice to our efforts to de-clutter? Everything we give away and let go of
can remind us of what Christ sacrificed for us. The better we get at letting go, the easier it becomes, but
there may still be some things that will be very hard to let go of, even though
we know we should. At these times,
letting go may seem like inexorable deprivation. This is when remembering Christ’s sacrifice can be most
instructive and comforting. And
can’t we ask the Lord to sanctify us and refine us by our efforts to let
go?
Let me give an example of something I felt was a sacrifice
to de-clutter. I’ve only made one
quilt for myself in my life, and I gave it away before I ever used it. I designed it myself, and I chose the
material for it specifically so that it would be as colorful and cheerful as
possible. I meant it to be
as large as possible for my twin bed (I was single at the time), and I gave it
a fleece backing and the thickest batting I could find so that it would be as
warm as possible. It took a long
time to make, and by the time I finished it, things had changed—I was married
and slept on a king-sized bed with my husband, and although the quilt would
have been huge on a twin-sized bed, the quilt wasn’t big enough for a
king. We also had moved to
Arizona, and the quilt designed for northern chilly nights was too hot. The day I finished it was the day
I knew I had to give it away. I
took it to a ward swap meet and the bishop’s daughter pounced on it. I was pleased that someone else was
going to appreciate it.
That was kind of a hard decision to make, but it made it
easier for me to de-clutter. After
all, if you’ve let go of something big, then letting go of littler things is a
cinch.
When have you let go of something and felt like it was a
sacrifice? Tell me about it?
4 comments:
When we were moving to Iowa we could not take my beloved baby grand piano which I had worked and scrimped for four years to purchase. We couldn't afford to have it moved professionally and we didn't have space to move it ourselves. I prayed that it would be purchased by someone who would love it. At the same time someone was praying to find a beautiful piano for a specific amount of money. She called to see the piano, and I could tell she fell in love with it just like I did. She was a professional pianist and was remodeling her living room and wanted a gorgeous piece of furniture to put in it. We agreed on the price, less than I had asked for but exactly what she had and she made arrangements to have it moved to her home. I cried and cried over my loss, but was comforted by how thankful she was to find it in answer to her prayer. It made my sacrifice worthwhile. There are day when I still miss that lovely piano.
Wow. As a pianist, I honor your sacrifice.
I remember giving our swing set/fort to a family. Our daughter had outgrown it, kind of, and they really needed it.
Was sad to see it go, but it did the other family good and they could not afford to pay for it.
Wow. A swingset is a big thing! That's amazing!
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