Article July 21, 1986 Issue

Don't be afraid to sacrifice

DIANE STAUNTON STAPLES

Sacrifice isn't a subject we like to think about very much. Society today is much more interested in acquiring things than in giving up anything. Yet sacrifice, in its true sense, is not something to be avoided but a very positive step in our spiritual growth.

If you are reading this periodical, you're probably seeking a better understanding of God. To know God, even to begin to understand Him, is the greatest blessing any of us can have. Yet we read in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: "A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding."^{Science and Health, p. 16.}

Mortal mind, the false, limited sense of life in matter, never wants to sacrifice any of its materiality. It defines good in material terms and then clings ferociously to its material sense of good—to all the material things and pleasures it likes and wants. Yet each material sacrifice, made for the good of others or for the sake of Principle, takes us a step forward in spiritual growth. We find new blessings coming to us directly from God to replace in better ways what we thought we had given up. For each sacrifice of the material sense of good that we make, we are richly recompensed with a higher good—good that is spiritual, that comes from God and yet is manifested in humanly tangible ways that meet our present needs. In this way our trust in God is strengthened. Step by step we gain a higher concept of sacrifice, and eventually we see that all we have really been sacrificing is various aspects of the false belief that good is material and limited.

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