Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven

The words "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven," from the hymn "Praise to the Man," always stir my soul. Sacrifice is defined as "the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else more important or worthy." Sacrifice comes in many forms and may not always be convenient. Latter-day Saints make a covenant with the Lord to sacrifice. By doing so, we surrender our will to His, dedicating our lives to building up His kingdom and serving His children.
Elder Robert K. Dellenbach

We are asked to sacrifice many things, but for each of those sacrifices there is a blessing given. And usually the thing we are sacrificing is not the best thing for us anyway. So really what are we "sacrificing"? Would you call it a sacrifice to give up a ball of mud for a diamond?

Here are a few of the things we are regularly asked to sacrifice, and some of the blessings which are attached.

Tithing and Offerings

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
Mal 3:10-11

Fasting

Upon practicing the law of the fast, one finds a personal well-spring of power to overcome self-indulgence and selfishness.
President Spencer W. Kimball

Keeping the commandments

Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual.
Mosiah 2:41

Service/Time

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matt 6:33

In reality, all these things that we are asked to sacrifice are things that were given to us by our Heavenly Father in the first place.

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

25 And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.
Mosiah 2:20-25

So if all those things are not really ours to give, is there anything we can give which really would be a sacrifice? Yes.

Our challenge is to unselfishly sacrifice all that we have been given, including our will. Elder Neal A. Maxwell rightly said: "The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar. The many other things we 'give' … are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us."

Sacrifice is ultimately a matter of the heart. "Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind." If we are caring, if we are charitable, if we are obedient to God and follow His prophets, our sacrifices will bring forth the blessings of heaven. "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit."
Elder Robert K. Dellenbach

One of the purposes of our sacrifices is to increase our faith so that we can be instruments in the Lord's hands.

Joseph Smith declared on one occasion: "I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; … with all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there, and thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty."
President Gordon B. Hinckley

Sometimes, what we are asked to sacrifice may not make sense to us. We may be tempted to exclaim that the request is unreasonable or that it makes no sense. Instead we should look at it as an opportunity to receive greater blessings because of our obedience.

In 2001, about 140 Peruvian members from the remote city of Iquitos accepted a divine challenge to be sealed to their families for eternity in the temple.

Iquitos sits on the banks of the Amazon River in northeastern Peru, separated from the rest of the country by some of the world’s largest waterways and the Andes Mountains to the west. Traveling to the temple in Lima via air was expensive and, for most of the members, not an option.

Still, they resolved to be obedient and claim their temple blessings. Under the guidance of local leaders, the members embarked on the first full-fledged temple trip from Iquitos. They spent several days traveling west on boats on the mighty Amazon and Maranon rivers before climbing aboard buses that would ascend the treacherous dirt roads snaking high into the Andes. After a week of exhausting travel, the Iquitos members arrived in Lima.
LDS Church News

When these members were challenged to get to the temple they knew it would take great sacrifice. They could have murmered, saying it was unreasonable, and not obeyed. But they decided to accept the challenge. They were greatly blessed because of it.

A story told by President Monson illustrates a similar point.

I recall an experience I had in the 1970s when I was responsible for the work of the Church in what we called East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic.

The government of East Germany would not allow Church materials to be taken into the country. So I was asked by President Spencer W. Kimball to memorize the new edition of what we then called the General Handbook of Instructions, to cross the border into East Germany, and then to type the handbook for the faithful Church leaders there. Although it would have been impossible for anyone to actually memorize the entire book, I did study it thoroughly and learned the concepts from cover to cover. I traveled to East Germany and asked the Church leaders there for an office, a typewriter, and a ream of paper. I commenced typing.

An hour or two—and many pages—later, I stood up to stretch, glanced around the room, and noticed on a bookshelf behind me a copy of the new edition of the General Handbook of Instructions in the German language. Someone had obviously smuggled it across the border.
President Thomas S. Monson

Was President Monson's time "wasted"? No. He was blessed greatly for his willingness to sacrifice his time.

We should eagerly look for opportunities to sacrifice because of the increased faith and blessings that we will be given.
Sacrifice your time: Read scriptures, Pray, Go to church, Serve in your callings, Perform acts of service.
Sacrifice your possessions: Pay tithing, Give a generous fast offering.
Sacrifice your will: Obey the commandments, Follow the prophet, Listen to the counsel of your leaders, Do not murmer.

33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.
34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.
D&C 64:33-34

How to Respond to Bullying

Here's an outline of the recommendations made in a research study on bullying.

Nutshell version

1. Verify
2. Stand up without escalating
3. Report it
4. Fight back (without violence if possible)

Detailed version

1. Determine whether or not the bullying is actual bullying. Is it intended to cause harm? Is it repeated or just one incident? Can it be stopped or is there an imbalance of power that makes your child unable to do anything about it? Bickering between kids is not bullying. Learn the difference and teach your kids the difference.

2. Teach your child to take a stand. Ignoring it is just about the worst thing you can do. Patience is one thing, but teach kids that they have lines that shouldn't be crossed. Teach your child to strongly stand up for themselves verbally. Help them learn how to do this without escalating the situation. It's a little tricky, but they can tell someone to knock it off without threatening anyone or breaking any laws. They should only ask once. Anything else just makes the bullying worse.

3. If the verbal stand doesn't work, they need to report it to someone - and again, once and only once (per person). Tell the teacher and if that doesn't work, go to the principal. If that doesn't do it, go to the police (in most states bullying is illegal and a lot can be done if you have documented things). Anything more than one report is a waste of time. If they don't act, they aren't going to.

4. If that doesn't work, send a written email to the principal explaining that you have reported the situation, and will be taking action yourself since the school has failed to deal with it. Teach your child to fight back. I recommend something that is physical but non-violent like wrestling, jiu-jitsu, or judo. Pinning someone stands up a lot better in court than punching someone's face in. But - the research I worked on clearly showed that victims who fought back didn't have the side effects that pure victims had, and it actually helped bullies stop too. Yes - it is politically uncool - but fighting back is the single best way to help both the victim and the bully.

Additional notes

Bulling turns into terrible things later on. Bullies have much higher rates of incarceration, committing rape and sexual assault, and suicide. Victims are much more likely to be raped or victimized as adults, and have higher rates of suicide and drug use. Fighting back is essential because victims have to get their control back. Do what you have to do, change schools, transfer classes, call the cops - but let your kids know that this will stop. Don't wait months to take action. Anything that lasts more than a few days is way too long. Teach your kids that bullying happens. They aren't ruined for life because they got bullied. In fact, it should make them stronger. But a bully should know that every time they try anything with your child, there will be a response.. every, single, time.

As a side note - most parents of bullies think their kids are the victims. This is why it is so important to define it clearly and be very honest with your kids that if they provoke the situation, their world will get very uncomfortable too. You can't be a victim and a bully - doesn't work that way.

Source: Cougarboard

Placebo Effect

Definition: a beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.

The term “placebo” refers to a dummy pill passed off as a genuine pharmaceutical, or more broadly, any sham treatment presented as a real one. By definition a placebo is a deception, a lie. But doctors have been handing out placebos for centuries, and patients have been taking them and getting better, through the power of belief or suggestion—no one’s exactly sure. Even today, when the use of placebos is considered unethical or, in some cases, illegal, a survey of 679 internists and rheumatologists showed that about half of them prescribe medications such as vitamins and over-the-counter painkillers primarily for their placebo value.

There’s one more strange twist: The PiPS [Harvard’s Program in Placebo Studies] researchers have discovered that placebos seem to work well when a practitioner doesn’t even try to trick a patient. These are called “open label” placebos, or placebos explicitly prescribed as placebos.

The placebo effect is not a single phenomenon but rather a group of inter-related mechanisms. It’s triggered not just by fake pharmaceuticals but by the symbols and rituals of health care itself—everything from the prick of an injection to the sight of a person in a lab coat.

And the effects are not just imaginary, as was once assumed. Functional MRI and other new technologies are showing that placebos, like real pharmaceuticals, actually trigger neurochemicals such as endorphins and dopamine, and activate areas of the brain associated with analgesia and other forms of symptomatic relief.

Steps to maximize the effect of a placebo:

1. Choose a pill color that you associate with success in what you want. What color do you associate with sleep? Use that color for a "sleeping pill".
2. Use capsules rather than pills because they look more scientific and therefore have a stronger effect.
3. Compose a set of instructions that cover not only how to take them but what exactly the pill is going to do.
4. A higher price increases the sense of value. It will make them work better.
5. One of the key elements of the placebo effect is the way our expectations shape our experience. Make it very official-looking: the pill bottle, the label, the prescription, the receipt from the pharmacy, the instruction sheet, etc.
6. Have or be an empathetic caregiver. Having another person involved (like the prescribing doctor or other caregiver) who expresses genuine empathy and wants you to get better helps the effect.
7. Follow the regimen. It is important to take the capsules faithfully and as directed, because previous studies have shown that adherence to the treatment regimen increases placebo effects.
8. Be patient and positive. Tell yourself things like, "Like any medication, the placebo might take some time (minutes, days, weeks, whatever seems appropriate) to build up to a therapeutic dose."

Some types of people are affected more by placebos than others.

Worriers, people with higher dopamine levels, can exhibit greater levels of attention and memory, but also greater levels of anxiety, and they deal poorly with stress. Warriors, people with lower dopamine levels, can show lesser levels of attention and memory under normal conditions, but their abilities actually increase under stress. The placebo component thus fits into the worrier/warrior types as one might expect: Worriers tend to be more sensitive to placebos; warriors tend to be less sensitive.

Source: "Why I Take Fake Pills", Smithsonian Magazine