The Ultimate Sacrifice

Recently I have had the opportunity to teach a lot about Sacrifice. What it is, why we need to do it. Obviously sacrifice is something that is never easy. When searching for some definitions of Sacrifice i came across this definition: "To sacrifice is to give up something we value for the sake of something of greater worth."(True to the Faith pg, 149). When thinking of sacrifice my mind of course turns towards the greatest of all sacrifices; our Savior Jesus Christ and the ultimate sacrifice of the Atonement. He sacrificed everything for all of us. I thought of our Heavenly Father, His sacrifice of sending His only begotten Son. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" I Love this story which puts it into another perspective; a perspective of our Heavenly Father. I hope it helps you like it helped me. It's titled, The Bridge, author anonymous:

There once was this turntable bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day, the bridge sat parallel with the river, allowing ships to pass freely on both sides. But at certain times each day a train would come along and the bridge would be turned across the river allowing the trains to cross.
A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed.
One evening, as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train's light. He stepped to the controls and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was to turn the bridge into position. He turned the bridge, but to his horror, found that the locking control didn't work. If the bridge was not locked into position securely, it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train comes onto it. This would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This train was a passenger train with many people aboard.He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever he could use to operate the lock manually.

He could hear the rumble of the train now. He took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply pressure to keep the mechanism

 locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength. Then, coming across from the direction of his control shack he heard a sound that made his blood run cold: "Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him.
His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run, run!" but the train was too close, the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost lifted the lever to run and snatch up his son, and carry him to safety, but he realized he could not get back to the lever in time. Either the people on the train or his little son must die. He took just a moment to make his decision. The train sped swiftly and safely on it's way, and no one aboard was aware of the tiny, broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of a sobbing

 man still clinging tightly to the lever long after the train had passed. They didn't see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked, to tell his wife how he had sacrificed her son.