Obedience and Sacrifice

"Obedience is better than sacrifice."

Obedience is the first law of heaven--before sacrifice.  I pondered/wrote about sacrifice, and I was left with questions, still.  When should we sacrifice, when not, when do we know if our sacrifice is really going to get us what we want most, and when are we actually sacrificing things that would lead us towards what we want most?

Maybe my inquiry would have been answered if I'd started with a better foundation--obedience.  In the context of obedience, sacrifice seems to make more sense.  If we are determined to be obedient, sacrifices will inevitably come up as we go through life.  We can't keep the commandments and have every temporary (illusory) pleasure.  In fact, we will have to give up many of them.

Trouble seems to come when we try to "sacrifice" obedience.  For example, when I "sacrificed" taking care of my body, mind, spirit and relationships in order to take care of Isaac and try to avoid any further illnesses, I was "sacrificing" obedience.  We are commanded to take care of ourselves, to see to our temporal, spiritual and eternal needs, and I wasn't.

A story was told in Sacrament meeting yesterday about a time on the gentleman's mission when he "sacrificed" obedience.   He broke several important mission rules in order to teach a family who was interested in the gospel but was outside of his area.  The results were not positive, and he was taught "obedience is better than sacrifice" by his mission president.

"Sacrificing" obedience is very tempting.  We see what we suppose to be the most important thing, and the commandments that keep us from it seem unimportant.  We feel justified in breaking them because we are making a "sacrifice."  Often, it is for someone else's good, or a "greater" good than our own.  But I my experience has shown that this is an illusion.  God knows what is most important, and what will bring us the greatest joy (even better than we do, often) and he gave us commandments to keep us on the path towards those goals.  Supposing that leaving the path will get us to the goals faster or better is misguided and prideful.  "Sacrificing" obedience is like leaving the strait and narrow path to take a "short cut" to our goal through unknown territory. It means that we think that really, we know better than God, or whoever made the path/rule, and that our leaving the path won't really impact us negatively.

It would have helped me to put it in those terms as I was struggling with taking care of myself vs. taking care of Isaac.  As I was "sacrificing" obedience, I wasn't consciously thumbing my nose at God's ways and wisdom.  I wanted God's help and was asking for it, I knew he was my source of strength, and yet I wasn't feeling it.  Blessings are predicated on obeying laws, and taking care of yourself seems to be a requirement for feeling good in the long run, and being a capable care giver.  I had set up a false situation in my mind, in thinking that I needed to "sacrifice" the commandment and wisdom given to me to take care of myself in order to care for Isaac.  I was trying to take a "short cut."  It turned out it greatly limited my ability to care for him.  My "sacrifice" did not bring me what I wanted most.