Sacrifices are seen as painful things people are forced into, but sacrifice can be very good. Learn the benefits of making sacrifices in life and for spiritual reasons, and how you can make sacrifices in your personal life to make everything better.
When a lot of people think of sacrifice, they think of deprivation, starvation, suffering, and self-neglect. That’s really not what sacrifice is supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be something healthy you do to have a more powerful bond with your higher power or to have more control of what goes on in your own personal life. So, then what is sacrifice anyhow? Join us at Mysticsense to find out. Find out the definition of sacrifice and find out what it isn’t. Discover what some ancient people did for spiritual sacrifices and ways of making sacrifices in your personal life. Find out why and how sacrifice works and simple, painless ways you can make sacrifices to improve your own life.
What is Sacrifice?
Merriam-Webster online has multiple definitions for sacrifice. They say it is “ destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else.” They also say it is “ to suffer loss of, give up, renounce, injure, or destroy especially for an ideal, belief, or end.” One of the key synonyms that they give for it is “offering.” Quite often we hear sacrifice discussed as objects or lives given to a deity in an act of worship. Sacrifice of living beings to goddesses or gods is typically a thing of the past. Most religious people who sacrifice will either do a little bit of fasting by depriving themselves of some food. They will also sacrifice by giving money to their religious organization.
A very common form of sacrifice that most people everywhere in the world perform is known as tax. Taxes take money from people's income and apply that money to governmental offices, tasks, and services for the general public. So, a portion of your income might be sacrificed for taxes, however those taxes are used for your emergency departments, road building, public employees, for metro parks, and even snow removal in winter time. Even though it's not fun to sacrifice this money, you will get it back. That's the whole point of sacrifice. You give up one thing to get something else. Speaking of deities, you can read about some of them here in our article about goddesses and gods of war: Who is the Goddess and God of War?
What Sacrifice Isn’t
Perhaps it's not fair to say what sacrifice isn't, because you can make it anything you want it to be. However, sacrifice is not supposed to be torture, unnecessary suffering, or something that you don't benefit from. A lot of people who fast will take the money they would have spent and give it to people who are hungry. Those taxes that you sacrificed your money for are dedicated to coming back to you and if they don't, that's a problem. Sacrifice is not supposed to be something that you regret, hate, or even complain about,and it's also not something that people are supposed to guilt you into doing against your own will.
Sacrifice is not supposed to be a way of exploiting people and it's not supposed to be something that we do for public show. Sacrifice is supposed to help us to have stronger communities, better relationships with our neighbors, and a better relationship with our higher power. We are not supposed to overly deprive ourselves, but sacrifice helps us to keep from being gluttons. Sacrifice is supposed to help us to restore balance in our lives both physically and spiritually by reminding us of how blessed we are and encouraging us to share. It also helps us to remember not to become overly reliant on possessions and we should focus on having enough but not too much. Sacrificing unnecessary things by purging them from our lives is one great method of sacrifice. Find out how here: Time to Purge- Let Go of The Unnecessary
Making Spiritual Sacrifices
In multiple ancient religions including Voodoo, Judaism, and Germanic heathenry, the sacrifice of living people or animals as gifts to a god or goddess has been common. Perhaps one of the most famous groups of people who did human sacrifices was the ancient Aztecs. They viewed human sacrifice as payment for the sacrifices the gods themselves made while they were creating the world. They also believed that the sun had to be paid in blood, or it would stop lighting the world. They didn't just sacrifice people though, they practiced self harm and spilled a little of their own blood. Also burned tobacco and incense to the gods and they would sacrifice animals as well.
For pre-Christian Germanic Pagans, they held a ritual called a Blot. While it was something that the rulers did on a large scale, people still did them in their own homes. It strengthened the ties between the ruling elites but it also helped to appease the gods to make the land fertile and bring about good harvests and peace among the people. Typically these rituals were either held at a great feast hall, or somewhere like a nature grove or at a waterfall. Pigs and horses would be sacrificed for the gods. The meat would be profaned and shared among the people at a ritual feast while the blood was given to the gods and also used to bless the people. The Romans wrote about Germanic tribal warriors sacrificing their defeated enemies to the gods. Like the Aztecs, the Germanic Pagans did blood sacrifice to unite with the gods, but they also did it to ensure that the gods helped the people by keeping the livestock healthy and making the crops grow well. Read about the powerful germanic god, Odin, here: Norse God Odin- His Many Names and Myths
Making Mundane Sacrifices
The sacrifices you make don't have to take on spiritual meaning. Most parents make sacrifices for the sake of their children. They will wear older clothes so they can buy their children new clothes. They will give up hours of sleep without complaining so they can take their children to the wonderful places where they want to go. Adult children also make sacrifices for their elderly parents. They will spend their evenings, weekends, and holidays taking care of them. Your family dog will sacrifice some of their own sleep because they believe that they need to stay awake and keep you safe while you're resting.
The families that we love aren't the only ones who we make sacrifices for. Volunteers give countless public service hours to clean up trash from parks, and public spaces. Countless retirees spend multiple hours visiting lonely animals in shelters and giving back by visiting lonely disabled people. Some people sacrifice for the health of the planet by reducing their dependence on non-sustainable energy and goods, and others sacrifice their desire to tell somebody off for the sake of keeping the peace. If you think about it, there are opportunities to sacrifice of ourselves for the greater good every day. Learn about community building here: Our Communities: Building and Nurturing Them
Why Sacrifice Works
When you sacrifice, you give up something to get something else- oftentimes, something better. This works out for multiple reasons. Sometimes, something bad has been holding you up from something good. An unhealthy habit can be sacrificed so your health is better, for example. Sacrifice also works to help improve things for the greater good. You can sacrifice your own selfish desires for the good of your family. In relationships, you can sacrifice your desires to put other people first, and it will strengthen your relationships. Spiritually, you can sacrifice things like vices that come between you and your higher power.
Sometimes negative things are in the way of positive things, and sacrificing those negative things creates room for positive things. Sitting and watching TV might be your favorite thing after a long day at work, but if you go walking with your dog instead, that will help you meet your health goals better than sitting and staring at the TV will. You might have feelings for your toxic significant other, but if you sacrifice a bad relationship, it will give you the freedom to heal and find a healthy relationship. It benefits you and everyone in your life when you sacrifice bad things to make room for good things. Are you in a toxic relationship? Find out here: Are You In A Toxic Relationship? | 10 Signs of Toxic People
Easy Ways to Sacrifice
Making sacrifices doesn't have to be hard. There are simple things that you can include in your everyday life to make sacrifices that you will get a great return from. Donate things and give of your time. Compromise when it's called for and be kind and accepting of other people. Unlearn a bad habit and replace it with a good habit. Most of all really pay attention and listen closely to what other people have to say.
Donate
Maybe you don't have a lot of spare money laying around to give away, but you do have extra things that you're not using. Find out what local organizations give things for free to people in need and donate things to them. You never know when someone has fallen on hard luck and they could use a little help. Clean out your storage rooms, basements, attics, your garage, and your closets. Check underneath your beds and in all of your kitchen cabinets. What good things do you have that you're not using? Give them away!
Give Your Time
Maybe you don't have extra things that you can give away, but you have a little bit of spare time. Your local library may have opportunities for you to tutor students with their school work. You might be able to spend some time helping out at your local animal shelter by walking the dogs, or just cleaning the animal’s rooms. You may be able to help with park cleanup, or help at your local community garden. Plenty of organizations have opportunities for you to visit people who are lonely, or even foster animals. Sacrificing a little bit of your time can strengthen your community greatly. Another way to give of your time is to harmonize with people who are hard to get along with. Learn how here: How to Harmonize with People You Don’t Like
Compromise
Compromising can be difficult sometimes, but the benefit of it is strengthening your relationships. We can't all have everything exactly the way that we want it every time period. Sometimes we have to let somebody else choose where we go out to eat together. Sometimes we have to let somebody else choose the wall color or the curtains that we're going to hang in our home. Sometimes you have to let the kids stay up a little late on the weekend to watch their favorite movie on television. Chances are if you compromise, the people who you love will be willing to compromise for you next time.
Be Kind
It doesn't take any effort to be kind. Let people ahead of you in traffic. Water a plant that you can tell needs it. Give someone a compliment when they're having a bad day. Surprise someone with a bouquet of flowers. When you're kind, it just means that you want people to feel good. It takes very little effort to do something kind and thoughtful and make somebody feel better. You can use your kindness to resolve conflicts too. Learn how here: The Complete Guide to Conflict Resolution
Be Accepting
Everybody wants to be accepted, even people who are different from you. Maybe you don't understand your neighbor whose culture is the exact opposite of yours, but we don't have to completely understand one another to accept the fact that we all have the right to be who we are. The diversity that human beings exhibit is boundless. It's not possible for us to all be just alike. If someone isn't hurting anybody and they're just different from you, accept them for the way that they are. It won’t hurt a thing, and people will appreciate you.
Unlearn a Habit
It can be difficult to break habits. The way to do it is to decide to unlearn a habit for the greater good and then focus on replacing that habit with a better one. To help your daughter’s asthma get better, quit smoking. Drink more water instead. Instead of sighing and rolling your eyes every time your significant other asks you to do something, smile and be helpful. Sacrificing your bad habits and replacing them with good habits will make you a better version of yourself and improve your relationships. Learn how to embrace the virtues here: What is a Virtue and How Can You Embody it?
Listen
It's easier to talk than to listen, so sacrifice your voice temporarily and pay attention to what someone else has to say. The way to be a good listener is to believe that what other people say is just as important as what you have to say. Be careful though. You might become such a good listener that everybody comes to talk to you. That might not be a bad thing though!
Sacrifice has a bad reputation, but without it things wouldn't be as good. Sometimes sacrifice helps clean unnecessary things out of our lives and other times it helps us to focus on what's important. Sometimes we sacrifice because we have to choose someone's needs over our own, and other times we sacrifice to bring us closer to our higher power. Sacrifice shouldn't make you destitute and it shouldn't cause serious problems. Easy ways to make sacrifices are to unlearn a bad habit, accept people who are different from you, and compromise when you need to. Sacrifice is good. Use it to your advantage.
Are you being called to make a sacrifice and you don't know quite how to do it? We've got your back. Reach out to one of our psychics anytime any day to find out how to make sacrifice work for you.
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