fathers sacrifice essay

The 3 Sacred Sacrifices My Father Made for Me

“You’re a good man, son.”

I could hear the shakiness in my dad, Brett’s, voice as he pulled me in for the final bear hug of the weekend. “I’m really going to miss you, Chris,” he continued. “Let’s not let another year go by before we see each other.”

I could hear my guilt in his goodbye. Truth is, I deserved it.

“Thanks, dad. I’ll be seeing you again soon, don’t you worry,” I said quickly, trying to console him.

As I walked in the airport terminal, my eyes welled up with emotion until they overflowed.

After all these years, airport au revoirs haven’t gotten any easier. And neither has seeing my dad cry.

I checked in and made my way to the gate, but I couldn’t shake the image of my father tearing up as we bid farewell. Honestly, I can count the number of times on both hands that I’ve seen my dad cry. The specialness of the moment stuck with me and I began to savor a different portion of it each time I replayed it in my mind. The strength of his grip conveyed how proud he was of me as he pulled me in to embrace. The stubbornness I knew growing up dissipated and was replaced by tenderness in the form of a gentle kiss on my forehead. Beyond the tears, a smile emerged, and the walls of time and space that stood between us crumbled in the presence of love.

I arrived at my gate with well over an hour to spare. I pulled out The Second Mountain by David Brooks and picked up reading where I last left off. But, after just a few paragraphs, a singular phrase kept popping into my head:

His tears are your tears.

In this unifying moment, I realized a humbling truth: Our tears were one in the same; I really am my father’s son. And I turned out to be a good man because a good man raised me.

He struggled and sacrificed as a divorced single parent. He put a roof over my head and food in my mouth—and taught me to be grateful for both. He showed me right from wrong. He gave up on his dreams so I could one day pursue my own.

I remember our humble apartment in the suburbs of Baltimore where we spent over a decade living together, just the two of us. In my mind’s eye, I see my dad—younger and more vibrant—sipping a cold beer as I enter from the living room. He smiles at six-or-seven-year-old me and beckons me to come closer. I sit at the kitchen table with him as we watch the Orioles play on TV with the windows open and the volume up high. The sticky air of late spring sways the curtains as we watch baseball together as father and son.

I recall memories of soccer tournaments and award ceremonies, my first pet turtle and my first computer, our first trip to Vermont and our first family reunion in Maine—priceless quality time spent laughing, bonding and learning from him. He spent years leading by example—not just telling but showing me how to be a man of respect and good repute; my dad is, and always was, my world.

Sometimes in life, we distort the facts to fit our feelings. And so it was with my childhood. I often mistook my dad’s quieter brand of strength and support to mean that he didn’t care. But he was always the one silently sacrificing on my behalf—fully aware that his decisions were the foundation upon which I would build the life I have today. He knew that the sweat from his brow would be worth it for me to have a future brighter than the one he was given. Somehow, he understood that he was planting the seeds for my own success, even if it meant that he would never again have it for himself.

As my plane took off down the runway to head back to New York, another realization swept over me: I’ve spent my life soaring because my father was selfless. My dad made compromises and concessions so that I could one day capture a happiness all my own.

Well, dad, I’m happy to say that I found it. And it was all worth it. I can never repay the debt I owe you. But I hope these words show you just how much I appreciate the sacredness of your gifts to me. I wouldn’t be the man I am without you. I love you.

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1. My father sacrificed his career for my childhood.

The first sacrifice my father made on my behalf changed the course of my entire childhood. Just before I began elementary school, my dad left his corporate job traveling the country for a major automotive company and took a demotion as the manager of one of the shops in the suburbs of Baltimore. “If I had stayed in my job with the home office, I would have rarely been home with you,” he told me years later. “I knew how badly you needed me and I made a tough choice.”

Indeed. But he made it look so easy.

He put my needs ahead of his own. He understood the importance of his presence as my father. He knew it would be harder on him financially as a single parent, but he did it anyway.

I marvel at the grace with which I was blessed in that moment. I marvel at the kind of man who could so easily recognize what was in my best interest, and do it—even though it meant putting me first. I marvel at the kindness and generosity and compassion it took to make that decision on behalf of a little boy who just didn’t know any better.

I’m in awe of you, dad. Thank you for this act of unconditional love. I promise to use my life to continue to pay it forward to others.

2. My father sacrificed his mind for my heart.

I was just six years old when I stood up for myself for the first time. It wouldn’t be the last.

Time and time again, I challenged my father to adapt to my point of view. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps and play baseball. But I chose to play soccer. He wanted me to be a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy just like him. But I just wasn’t that type. He wanted—just like so many other fathers—for his son to grow up and marry a nice woman. But I was born gay.

At every turn, he did his best to clear away the ideas he had for me and instead support the realities of who I was becoming. Never was that tougher or more challenging than when I came out to him as a freshman in high school.

There were tough conversations. There were extended periods of awkward silence and tension. There were moments where I didn’t know how we’d make it through.

But there was never a lack of love. Even in his silence, he was rearranging his past to fit the truth of my future. Gradually, then suddenly, we made our way back to one another. Forgiveness stepped in and wiped the slate clean of judgment. And returned us to love.

While each of my dad’s sacrifices was sacred and tough in their own right, his willingness to see things differently paved the way for our bond to grow ever closer.

And that’s something I wouldn’t trade for the world.

3. My father sacrificed his health for my humanity.

Not all sacrifices are made actively and consciously. But they are sacrifices nonetheless.

The final concession my dad made for me is one such example.

Brett had a stroke in June of 2004, which rendered him legally blind, never to drive a car or return to work again. He had to relearn how to read and write. He was forced, after so many years of hard work, to suddenly stop and slow down. He was gifted the opportunity to take on a new struggle of his own.

Watching him rebuild taught me many things. And it taught him many more. Seeing my father’s heart soften and open to the world has shown me that vulnerability is a sign of strength. Witnessing his spiritual growth and reconnection to something larger and grander has shown me that I, too, belong to a force greater than I can ever name or know. And being granted the gift of his tears has shown me that no expression of love is ever wasted; in reality, it’s all that we leave behind.

As my father ages, I understand more and more what really matters because I not only have the opportunity to see the world through his eyes, I realize that his eyes are my eyes. And it’s my duty to use them to look for the beauty and love in everything, and savor it with all the time I’ll be granted in this form.

Thank you, dad, for demonstrating firsthand the precious impermanence of life. I vow to cherish the one you’ve granted me. And hold you close in my heart. Always.

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College Essay: My Parents’ Sacrifice Makes Me Strong

After living in Texas briefly, my mom moved in with my aunt in Minnesota, where she helped raise my cousins while my aunt and uncle worked. My mom still glances to the building where she first lived. I think it’s amazing how she first moved here, she lived in a small apartment and now owns a house.

My dad’s family was poor. He dropped out of elementary school to work. My dad was the only son my grandpa had. My dad thought he was responsible to help his family out, so he decided to leave for Minnesota because of many work opportunities .

My parents met working in cleaning at the IDS C enter during night shifts. I am their only child, and their main priority was not leaving me alone while they worked. My mom left her cleaning job to work mornings at a warehouse. My dad continued his job in cleaning at night.

My dad would get me ready for school and walked me to the bus stop while waiting in the cold. When I arrived home from school, my dad had dinner prepared and the house cleaned. I would eat with him at the table while watching TV, but he left after to pick up my mom from work.

My mom would get home in the afternoon. Most memories of my mom are watching her lying down on the couch watching her n ovelas – S panish soap operas – a nd falling asleep in the living room. I knew her job was physically tiring, so I didn’t bother her.

Seeing my parents work hard and challenge Mexican customs influence my values today as a person. As a child, my dad cooked and cleaned, to help out my mom, which is rare in Mexican culture. Conservative Mexicans believe men are superior to women; women are seen as housewives who cook, clean and obey their husbands. My parents constantly tell me I should get an education to never depend on a man. My family challenged machismo , Mexican sexism, by creating their own values and future.

My parents encouraged me to, “ ponte las pilas ” in school, which translates to “put on your batteries” in English. It means that I should put in effort and work into achieving my goal. I was taught that school is the key object in life. I stay up late to complete all my homework assignments, because of this I miss a good amount of sleep, but I’m willing to put in effort to have good grades that will benefit me. I have softball practice right after school, so I try to do nearly all of my homework ahead of time, so I won’t end up behind.

My parents taught me to set high standards for myself. My school operates on a 4.0-scale. During lunch, my friends talked joyfully about earning a 3.25 on a test. When I earn less than a 4.25, I feel disappointed. My friends reacted with, “You should be happy. You’re extra . ” Hearing that phrase flashbacks to my parents seeing my grades. My mom would pressure me to do better when I don’t earn all 4.0s

Every once in awhile , I struggled with following their value of education. It can be difficult to balance school, sports and life. My parents think I’m too young to complain about life. They don’t think I’m tired, because I don’t physically work, but don’t understand that I’m mentally tired and stressed out. It’s hard for them to understand this because they didn’t have the experience of going to school.

The way I could thank my parents for their sacrifice is accomplishing their American dream by going to college and graduating to have a professional career. I visualize the day I graduate college with my degree, so my family celebrates by having a carne asada (BBQ) in the yard. All my friends, relatives, and family friends would be there to congratulate me on my accomplishments.

As teenagers, my parents worked hard manual labor jobs to be able to provide for themselves and their family. Both of them woke up early in the morning to head to work. Staying up late to earn extra cash. As teenagers, my parents tried going to school here in the U.S . but weren’t able to, so they continued to work. Early in the morning now, my dad arrives home from work at 2:30 a.m ., wakes up to drop me off at school around 7:30 a.m . , so I can focus on studying hard to earn good grades. My parents want me to stay in school and not prefer work to head on their same path as them. Their struggle influences me to have a good work ethic in school and go against the odds.

ThreeSixty Journalism,

a nonprofit program of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, uses the principles of strong writing and reporting to help diverse Minnesota youth tell the stories of their lives and communities.

How My Father's Sacrifices For My Family Inspire Me Every Day

A little over a month ago, I departed for my very first trip to the Philippines with my mother, father and sister.

This had been a long-anticipated trip for many years, and it had always seemed nearly impossible due to our constant conflict in schedules, finances and overall lack of planning.

However, 24 years later, it finally happened.

Both of my parents emigrated from the Philippines to America in the 1970s. Leaving everything they knew behind – their home, their culture and their families – they embarked on a journey that changed their lives forever.

Until now, I had never truly appreciated everything my parents did for me. I never realized the struggles they had to overcome and the sacrifices they had to make in order to provide a better life for our family.

My father has always been the strong, silent type when it comes to dealing with his issues. Like any man, he doesn't want to be bothered with the drama. Instead, he would cope on his own. He didn’t like to show too much emotion whenever he was upset.

Being the little fire-starter I was, I always pushed his buttons. I picked fights with him, especially when I knew he was already in a bad mood. We were similar.

Yet, I never thought about the weight he had to carry all these years. I didn't truly understand until I went to the Philippines.

When my mother and father immigrated to the US, they came separately. My mother came first, and her entire family (seven siblings and parents) immediately followed.

Then, my father came with his mother. To his dismay, his siblings (also seven) were unable to come as easily as my mother’s siblings did. And so, he made the sacrifice and had to leave them behind.

For years, my father attempted to bring his siblings to America. In 1994, my grandmother passed away, and that was the last time my father ever went back to the Philippines.

He buried my grandmother in her home country. After that, the fight to bring his family to America diminished. He had to raise a family of his own.

Twenty years flew by before my father was able to go back to the Philippines. It was twenty years of not spending a single day with any of his siblings. It was twenty years of memories he had missed out on.

It was twenty years until he finally brought me, my mother and my sister back home.

After we landed at the airport, I watched my father reunite with his siblings. I saw him fill up with joy and laughter, and he even shed a few tears. And this brought tears to my eyes, as well.

I finally was able to comprehend the sacrifice he had made for us, for his family.

Throughout my entire life, I never thought about how difficult it was (and still is) for them. I never thought about who my parents were before they became parents. Now that I look back on it, I am finally able to see the bigger picture.

I could never imagine making the sacrifice my father had made for me and my family. I could never imagine leaving everything and everyone I knew behind. Yet, somehow he did it.

I’ll never really understand until I become a parent myself, but for now, I can say my father has been my motivation and role model for the kind of parent I hope to someday become.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad.

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The journey of parenthood is paved with sacrifices, big and small, seen and unseen. From the sleepless nights of infancy to the emotional rollercoaster of adolescence, every parent navigates a path of selfless love and dedication. These sacrifices, often made quietly and without expectation of reward, shape the lives of their children in profound ways. As we grow older, we begin to understand the depth of these acts of love, recognizing the immense impact they’ve had on our own paths. Here, we’ve gathered some poignant quotes that reflect on the myriad sacrifices our parents make, offering a window into the boundless depth of parental love.

The Essence of Parental Sacrifice

“A parent’s love is made of deep devotion, sacrifice, and pain; it is endless and unselfish.” – Unknown
“The most beautiful necklace a mother can wear is not gold or gems, but her child’s arms around her neck.” – Unknown

Unseen Sacrifices

“For every dream that has taken flight, there’s a parent who stayed up late.” – Unknown
“Parents are the silent whisperers of encouragement behind their child’s successes.” – Unknown

The Depth of a Father’s Sacrifice

“A father doesn’t tell you that he loves you. He shows you.” – Dimitri the Stoneheart
“Behind every young child who believes in himself is a dad who believed first.” – Matthew Jacobson

A Mother’s Enduring Love

“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity.” – Agatha Christie
“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” – Unknown

The Legacy of Sacrifice

“My parents sacrificed their comfort and joy, so mine would be greater.” – Unknown
“The sacrifices of parents are the roots of their children’s futures.” – Unknown

Gratitude for Parental Sacrifices

“I am a reflection of my parents’ sacrifices and love.” – Unknown
“The older I grow, the more I realize that my mother is the best friend that I ever had.” – Unknown

The Journey Together

“Parenthood requires love, not DNA.” – Unknown
“In the end, kids won’t remember that fancy toy or game you bought them, they will remember the time you spent with them.” – Kevin Heath

Selfless Acts of Love

“To be a parent is to sacrifice your heart to have it live outside your body.” – Elizabeth Stone
“The true heroes of the world are parents who prioritize their children’s happiness over their own.” – Unknown

The Silent Strength of Parenthood

“Parenthood is the exquisite agony of being conquered by love stronger than yourself.” – Unknown
“The strength of parenthood lies not in the might of one’s power, but in the depth of one’s love.” – Unknown

The Gift of Time

“The best gift a parent can give to their child is time… Every second spent is priceless.” – Unknown
“Time is the only currency in parenting, and spending it is more valuable than any wealth.” – Unknown

The Wisdom Behind Sacrifices

“Every sacrifice a parent makes is a stepping stone to their child’s better future.” – Unknown
“The wisdom of our parents’ sacrifices lights the path we walk today.” – Unknown

The Art of Letting Go

“One of the hardest parts of being a parent is learning to let go, trusting the sacrifices made will lead them on the right path.” – Unknown
“Letting go is not a sign of weakness but a symbol of a parent’s trust in the foundation they’ve built.” – Unknown

The Price of Dreams

“Parents sacrifice their dreams so that their children can dream.” – Unknown
“Behind every child who pursues their dreams is a parent who sacrificed theirs to pave the way.” – Unknown

Unconditional Love and Sacrifice

“Unconditional love is the root of all parental sacrifices; it asks for nothing in return but the happiness of their child.” – Unknown
“The purest form of love is one that sacrifices without a second thought, expecting nothing back.” – Unknown

The Invisible Load

“The heaviest load a parent carries is the unseen burden of sacrifice for their child’s well-being.” – Unknown
“Invisible to the eye is the weight of sacrifice carried in a parent’s heart.” – Unknown

The Echoes of Sacrifice

“The echoes of a parent’s sacrifice resonate through generations, shaping futures yet unseen.” – Unknown
“What parents do in moderation, their children will do in excess; let the legacy of sacrifice be their guide.” – Unknown

The Harmony of Sacrifice and Joy

“In the symphony of life, a parent’s sacrifices are the silent notes that compose a child’s melody of joy.” – Unknown
“The harmony between a parent’s sacrifice and a child’s joy plays the sweetest tune.” – Unknown

The Beacon of Guidance

“Parents are the lighthouse guiding their children through the fog of life with the light of sacrifice and love.” – Unknown
“A parent’s sacrifice is a beacon that guides, even through the darkest night.” – Unknown

Nurturing Future Leaders

“Today’s sacrifices nurture the leaders of tomorrow; every parent’s effort sows the seeds of future greatness.” – Unknown
“In the garden of humanity, parents who sacrifice are the gardeners nurturing the growth of the next generation’s leaders.” – Unknown

The Tapestry of Sacrifice

“Each sacrifice a parent makes is a thread in the tapestry of a child’s future, woven with love and hope.” – Unknown
“The rich tapestry of life owes its colors to the sacrifices made by parents, each stitch a testament to love.” – Unknown

Reflections of a Parent’s Heart

“A parent’s heart is a mirror in which sacrifices for their children are reflected as the purest form of love.” – Unknown
“In the reflections of a parent’s heart, you’ll find the depth of sacrifices made out of unyielding love.” – Unknown

These additional quotes further explore the nuanced experiences of parental love, sacrifices, and the indelible impact they have on the lives of their children. Through these reflections, we honor the silent, often unnoticed acts of love that define parenthood.

I’m Audrey, a writer at heart that loves collecting quotes about life, love and everything in between. I strive to find creative and unique quotes that offer great value. I enjoy finding new ways to use these quotes and sharing these creations with others. Thanks for stopping by!

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Home » Articles » Parenting » Kids » Great Sacrifices Parents Make for Their Kids

Great Sacrifices Parents Make for Their Kids

Being a father is difficult. When your child is born, you realize another life has been put under your care. There is a tremendous amount of responsibility that comes with being a dad. It requires sacrifice. If you are going to be a great dad, you need to take what you have and give it to your kids. Often, nobody recognizes the sacrifices parents make—but that’s not why we make them. We give our time, resources, energy, and wisdom to our kids because we love them. We desire the best for them and that requires us to give up our own interests for their benefit.

When I was young, my dad modeled this to me really well. This is how he modeled sacrifice and the effect it had on me.

My Dad’s Sacrifice

When I was a junior in high school my dad took a job in a city around 60 miles away from us. He knew my sister and I wanted to finish high school where we started. So he made the decision to commute, driving a total of 120 miles a day. I didn’t realize until later what a big sacrifice that was for him.

My dad’s sacrifice set the tone for me. I followed my father’s example when I had my own career decisions to make. When I took the job in Indianapolis and left Tampa, my daughter was finishing up high school. I didn’t want her to get disrupted, so I went back and forth. The family stayed in Tampa and I commuted because that’s the sacrifice my dad had demonstrated.

Setting the Example

That’s the type of example we need to set as men. Your children will remember the choices you make. One of the best ways you can communicate how much you value your kids is by sacrificing for them. Sacrifices parents make have a lasting impact. If you model it for them, then they will be prepared to do the same for others.

Share and discuss: Are you married? If so, share this iMOM article with your wife and discuss it together: 5 Things Moms Need to Sacrifice for Their Kids .

Sound off: What is the most difficult sacrifice you have ever made for your kids?

Huddle Up Question

Huddle up with your kids and ask, “What do you think it means to sacrifice for someone?”

More Resources

3 Things Dads Need to Do Consistently

10 Ways for Kids to Feel Loved by Their Fathers

5 Enemies of Fatherhood

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Experience — My Personal Story of the Sacrifices Made by My Parent in Order to Give Me a Good Education

My Personal Story of The Sacrifices Made by My Parent in Order to Give Me a Good Education

Categories: Personal Experience Sacrifices

About this sample

Words: 1254 |

Published: Mar 14, 2019

Words: 1254 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Works Cited

Chen, D. (2018). Taiwanese American Families: Transnational Families and Identity. In Transnational Families, Migration and the Circulation of Care (pp. 99-117). Palgrave Macmillan.
Liu, W. M., Lee, R. M., & Negi, N. J. (2019). Asian American fathers: A systematic review of the literature. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 20(2), 258-272.
Tsai, J. L., Louie, V. S., Chen, A. J., & Uchida, Y. (2007). Learning what feelings to desire: Socialization of ideal affect through children's storybooks. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(1), 17-30.
Lee, M. (2015). Exploring the role of culture in fathering: Perspectives of Asian immigrant fathers. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 24(2), 122-136.
AirlineGeeks.com. (n.d.). Cathay Pacific. Retrieved from https://airlinegeeks.com/airline/cathay-pacific/
Cathay Pacific Airways. (n.d.). Our Fleet. Retrieved from https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_US/flying-with-us/our-fleet.html
Smith, A. (2022). The Cockpit: The Craftsmanship of Flying. Random House.
Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.). Becoming a Pilot. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/pilots/become/
Planes of Fame Air Museum. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from https://planesoffame.org/about/
Manning, D. (2017). Flying Free: A Memoir. HarperCollins.

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Sacrifice: An Unexpected Answer to Family Challenges

"In this world, it is not what we take up, but what we give up that makes us rich." –Henry Ward Beecher

Michael Ruse and Julie Dodger had been engaged for six months, but the closer they got to the wedding, the more concerned they were about the marriage. Julie was willing to move to a new location, and Michael was willing to attend all of her family gatherings. When they did the math, it should have worked out. But according to Julie, Michael didn’t earn enough, didn’t listen well enough, and didn’t compromise. And according to Michael, Julie was intolerant, disorganized, and high maintenance. They worried that their differences were irreconcilable.

Through discussion, Michael and Julie came to realize that although their problems were very real, their strengths were real as well, and they showed those strengths best when they sacrificed for one another. Julie felt like it was easier to appreciate Michael when she cleaned her apartment for him and when she forgave his imperfections, and Michael knew from experience that his love for Julie grew when he sacrificed his evening sports show to hear about her day. By focusing on sacrificing for each another, the couple gained the courage to move forward in their relationship. They learned that mutual love grows as we serve and sacrifice for each other.

A Contrary Culture

The couple was surprised at first that a simple principle like sacrifice provided a solution to their problems. We can understand their skepticism. American culture doesn’t value sacrifice as much as it values individuality. Self-care and science are the songs of our day, not sacrifice!

But perhaps what we need is the simple reminder of the truth spoken by Jesus: “[H]e that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).

The Great Paradox

There is a certain inevitability that as one struggles to foster someone else’s growth, one’s own growth, in one way or another, is also fostered. –Dag Hammarskjold 1

Sacrifice is a willingness to “forego immediate self-interest to promote the well-being of a partner or relationship”. 10 We frequently see this kind of sacrifice in family relationships. Consider these examples:

Parenting Relationships : A new mother sacrifices much-needed sleep in order to feed her hungry infant.

In the case of childrearing, sacrifice is not just a nicety—it is a necessity. The Family: A Proclamation to the World describes some important parental sacrifices:

Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

Marriage Relationships: A husband sacrifices his weekend plans with friends to take his wife on a date.

Marriage requires a lot of sacrifice. Fortunately, sacrifice is easier for people who are united. “For those individuals who have a strong sense of couple identity..., and are therefore more interested in the well-being of the couple unit than their own individual gains, it is theorized that acts of sacrifice will be easier because they do not feel like they are as much of a sacrifice”. 11 When a couple feels committed and unified, sacrifice is a blessing rather than a burden.

Family Relationships: A child sacrifices his lunch money for his younger sister when she forgets hers.

Children benefit from the sacrificial examples of their parents. As recipients of their parents’ sacrifices, they also learn how to sacrifice. In this way, sacrifice makes it more likely for family members to reciprocate good behaviors. The result is a more generous, hospitable home atmosphere.

A Responsibility and a Reward

Sacrifice is so common in family life that we often fail to notice it. Sacrifice can be active (doing something against your own inclination in order to please someone you love) or passive (not doing something that you’d like to do in order to please someone you love). It may seem costly at times, but sacrifice is a gift with many rewards.

Research shows that greater sacrifice leads to happier, longer-lasting relationships. Scholars include it with other “transformative processes” like forgiveness, commitment, and sanctification. Though the reasons why sacrifice is so important to families have not all been identified, some researchers have noted that “sacrifice has surplus value, yielding positive consequences for the partner above and beyond any direct impact on experienced outcomes”. 10 Rather than leaving us empty, sacrifice actually makes us full.

Motive Matters

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity . . . ( 2 Corinthians 9:7 ).

Not all sacrifice is created equally. People can sacrifice with two types of motives:

Approach motives seek to obtain positive outcomes. For example, a man could buy flowers for his wife because he loves her and wants her to be happy.

Avoidance motives seek to avoid negative outcomes. For example, the same man could buy flowers for his wife for Valentine’s Day because he knows that she would be mad if he didn’t.

Research shows that approach motives are better than avoidance motives. It’s easy to see why. The man who buys flowers for his wife because he loves her will be happy about the gift. He’ll probably feel like a better husband, and he will be confident that his wife will return the affection that he feels for her. In contrast, the man who buys flowers for his wife to avoid her wrath probably feels a little stressed, having to tiptoe around her. He might be mad about the money that it costs, and he will expect her to be ungrateful or undeserving of the gift. Rather than bringing the couple together, sacrificing with avoidance motives has the potential to drive them further apart. Giving sacrifice willingly (with approach motives) is far more beneficial than giving grudgingly.

Learning to Sacrifice

Learning to sacrifice is more than a to-do list. Since motivation matters, sacrifice must be delivered with an attitude of love and appreciation. It is less of an action than it is a process of becoming. So although the following suggestions may help, remember that sacrificing requires a change of heart, and not just a change of behavior:

Sacrificial Speech: Sometimes sacrifice means biting your tongue. When your partner or child makes a negative remark, don’t respond unkindly. Instead, select a calm and caring reply. This is called accommodation or editing.

Sacrificial Stance: Researchers recommend that rather than focusing on how our family members can change, we should shift our attention to something that we have more control over, such as how we can bless them. In the spirit of President John F Kennedy, we ask not “what can this person do for me?” but “what can I do for this person?”

Sacrificial Sight: Change your heart by changing your perspective. Researchers suggest that we should focus on the things that we want to create in our relationships rather than things that we want to avoid. See family members’ needs and interests as important as your own, and notice their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Sacrificial Savoir-Faire: Savoir-faire is the ability to act with grace and tact. Sometimes this requires sacrifice. Choose your battles wisely and be willing to set aside personal interests when they conflict with couple or family well-being.

Written by Jenny Stewart, Research Assistant, edited by Justin Dyer and Stephen F. Duncan, professors in the School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.

Bahr, H. S. (2001). Families and self-sacrifice: Alternative models and meanings for family theory. Social Forces, 79(4), 1231-1258.
Burr, W. R., Marks, L. D., Day, R. D. (2012). Sacred matters: Religion and spirituality in families. New York, NY: Routledge.
Cherlin, A. J. (2004). The deinstitutionalization of American marriage. Journal of Marriage and Family , 66(4), 848-861.
Fincham, F. D., Stanley, S. M., Beach, S. R H. (2007). Transformative processes in marriage: An analysis of emerging trends. Journal of Marriage and Family , 69, 275-292.
Fowers, B. J. (2000). Beyond the myth of marital happiness: How embracing the virtues of loyalty, generosity, justice, and courage can strengthen your relationship . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hinckley, G. B. (1971, June). Except the Lord build the house . Ensign.
Impett, E. A., Gable, S. L., & Peplau, L. (2005). Giving up and giving in: The costs and benefits of daily sacrifice in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(3), 327-344.
Pargament, K., Zinnbauer, B., Scott, A., Butter, E., Zerowin, J., & Stanik, P. (1998). Red flags and religious coping: Identifying some religious warning signs among people in crisis. Journal of Clinical Psychology , 54(1), 77-89.
Stanley, S. M., Whitton, S. W., Sadberry, S. L., Clements, M. L., Markman, H. J. (2006). Sacrifice as a predictor of marital outcomes. Family Process , 45, 289-303.
Van Lange, P. M., Rusbult, C. E., Drigotas, S. M., Arriaga, X. B., Witcher, B. S., & Cox, C. L. (1997). Willingness to sacrifice in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 72(6), 1373-1395.
Whitton, S., Stanley, S., & Markman, H. (2002). Sacrifice in romantic relationships: An exploration of relevant research and theory. In A. L. Vangelisti, H. T. Reis, & M. A. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Stability and change in relationships (pp. 156-182). Cambridge, UK: University Press.

The popular and professional literature seems to miss the real sources of strength in marriage: the shared goals, the necessary struggles and sacrifices, the calm joy of teamwork, and the comfort in two people carrying out mundane tasks together. All of these elements forge the profound bonds that characterize strong marriage. –Blaine Fowers, Beyond the Myth of Marital HappinessMichael and Julie’s experience illustrates that sacrifice can be a positive influence in family life. The couple was surprised at first that a simple principle like sacrifice provided a solution to their problems. We can understand their skepticism. American culture doesn’t value sacrifice as much as it values individuality. Society places such a large emphasis on self-fulfillment and independence that scholars call modern marriage the “individualized” marriage. 3 Although individuality isn’t necessarily bad, too much focus on self can lead us to forget about sacrificing for others, which leads to families being less effective. In addition, sacrifice is usually seen as a religious rather than an academic principle. Self-care and science are the songs of our day, not sacrifice! But things are changing, and sacrifice is gaining importance in the academic world. It came onto the scene almost by accident. In 1998, a team of researchers discovered that sacrifice has positive outcomes. People who sacrifice are happier and have a better outlook on life. 8 Although it may seem strange that giving oneself away makes a person happier, both research and religion teach us that this is true. In Christian tradition, we are most familiar with the words of Jesus: “[H]e that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).

The Sacrifice Paradox

There is a certain inevitability that as one struggles to foster someone else’s growth, one’s own growth, in one way or another, is also fostered. –Dag Hammarskjold 1 Sacrifice is a “willingness to forego immediate self-interest to promote the well-being of a partner or relationship”. 10 We often see this kind of behavior family relationships. For example, a new mother sacrifices sleep to feed her baby. A husband sacrifices his weekend plans with friends to take his wife on a date. Or a child sacrifices his lunch money for his younger sister when she forgets hers. Sacrifice is so common in family life that we sometimes fail to notice it.

Sacrifice can be active (doing something for someone you love) or passive (not doing something in order to please someone you love). Scholars call sacrifice a “transformation of motivation” because it changes how we relate to others. We replace self-interested desires with concern for the people we are with. 7 Rather than leaving us empty, sacrifice actually makes us full.

Research shows that greater sacrifice leads to happier, longer-lasting relationships. 10,9 Scholars include it with other “transformative processes” like forgiveness, commitment, and sanctification. 4 Though the reasons why sacrifice is so important to families have not all been identified, some researchers have noted that “sacrifice has surplus value, yielding positive consequences for the partner above and beyond any direct impact on experienced outcomes”. 10 However it works, it is obvious that it does work!

Family relationships provide countless opportunities to sacrifice. Parenting, in particular, requires more sacrifice than most relationships. In the case of childrearing, sacrifice is not just a nicety—it is a necessity. The Family: A Proclamation to the World describes some important parental sacrifices:Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.Husbands and wives have important responsibilities to each other and to their children. Fortunately, sacrifice is easier when spouses are unified. “For those individuals who have a strong sense of couple identity . . . and are therefore more interested in the well-being of the couple unit than their own individual gains, it is theorized that acts of sacrifice will be easier because they do not feel like they are as much of a sacrifice”. 11 Mature individuals realize that caring for one’s spouse is actually to one’s own benefit because doing so fulfills a deep human need to belong and to nurture. Sacrifice thus becomes a blessing rather than a burden.Children benefit from the sacrificial examples of their parents. As recipients of their parents’ sacrifices, they learn how to sacrifice in return. In this way, sacrifice makes it more likely for family members to reciprocate good behaviors. The result is a more generous, hospitable home atmosphere. 11

To care about someone . . . means devoting them to the person and taking joy in doing so; in the end, one feels richer for one’s efforts, not poorer. –Tzvetan Todorov. 1 Not all sacrifice is created equally. Researchers often categorize sacrificial behaviors as having one of two motives: 7

Approach motives seek to obtain positive outcomes. We call them “approach motives” or “appetitive motives” because the purpose of sacrifice is to gain a reward. For example, a man could buy flowers for his wife because he loves her and wants her to be happy. He is using approach motives because he is seeking the reward of his wife’s happiness and well-being.

Avoidance motives seek to avoid negative outcomes. Avoidance motives (or “aversive motives”) are so-named because the goal is to avoid some sort of punishment. For example, the same man could buy flowers for his wife for Valentine’s Day because he knows that she will be mad if he doesn’t. He exemplifies avoidance motives because he is seeking to avoid her anger.

Research shows that approach motives are better than avoidance motives. 7 It’s easy to see why. The man who buys flowers for his wife because he loves her will be happy about the gift. He’ll probably feel like a better husband, and he will be confident that his wife will return the affection that he feels for her. In contrast, the man who buys flowers for his wife to avoid her wrath probably feels a little stressed, having to tiptoe around her. He might be mad about the money that it costs, and he will expect her to be ungrateful or undeserving of the gift. Rather than bringing the couple together, sacrificing with avoidance motives has the potential to drive them further apart.

Emily Impett and her colleagues did a study to show the importance of sacrificing for the right reasons. They asked 161 college students to keep a daily journal. For two weeks, students wrote about their romantic relationships and their sacrificial behaviors, including whether or not they were sacrificing for avoidance or approach reasons. The results were impressive:

“On days when participants sacrificed for avoidance motives, they experienced more negative emotions, lower satisfaction with life, less positive relationship well-being, and more relationship conflict…Further, the more often participants sacrificed for avoidance motives over the course of the 2-week study, the less satisfied they were and the more likely they were to have broken up 1 month later…” . 7

Impett’s findings echo a common theme in the Bible: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity” ( 2 Corinthians 9:7 ). Given grudgingly, sacrifice doesn’t benefit the giver or the receiver nearly as much as when it is given willingly. 10 Approach motives and avoidance motives boil down to the principle of sincerity. Approach motives tend to be sincere, while avoidance motives tend to be insincere. Sincere, heartfelt sacrifice benefits both the giver and the receiver. Author Philip Hallie helped explain why sincerity is prerequisite to sacrifice:

[There is a fundamental distinction] between giving things and giving oneself. When you give somebody a thing without giving yourself, you degrade both parties. But when you give yourself, nobody is degraded . . . both parties are elevated by a shared joy. When you give yourself, the things you are giving become . . . féconde (fertile, fruitful). What you give creates new, vigorous life”. 1

Rather than feeling degraded or used when they sacrifice, people who sacrifice with approach motives (sincerely trying to bless someone else) actually feel like beneficiaries. They profit from the possibility of reciprocation, from feeling needed and useful, and from growing to know what is needed and how to meet those needs. 1

To Make Sacred

Sacrifice has found acceptance in academics, but it is also an important religious principle. The roots of the word sacrifice literally mean “to make sacred”. 2 A team of Brigham Young University scholars explored the link between sacrifice and sacredness. They found that “perceiving parts of family life to be sacred gives them a unique, unusually powerful, and salient influence in families… [Thus] the greater the sacredness of sacrificing, the more unique, powerful, and salient the effects of the sacrificing are on other family processes and valued family outcomes”. 2

So, for people who believe that sacrifice is a sacred principle (of special, even transcendent, significance), sacrifice in family life may be more meaningful. For example, the man who believes that fatherhood is a divine duty will probably be more willing to sacrifice work hours for time with his children than the man who thinks little of his fathering efforts. When sacrifices made in the home are considered sacred, we expect individuals and families to sacrifice more often and with purer motives, leading to better family outcomes. We thus recommend that couples and families view sacrifice from a sacred lens, and see family life as directly benefited by religious beliefs.

Sacrificial Speech: Sometimes sacrifice means biting your tongue. When your partner or child makes a negative remark, don’t respond unkindly. Instead, select a calm and caring reply. This is called accommodation or editing. 1
Sacrificial Stance: Researchers recommend that rather than focusing on how our family members can change, we should shift our attention to something that we have more control over, such as how we can bless them. 9 In the spirit of President John F Kennedy, we ask not “what can this person do for me?” but “what can I do for this person?”
Sacrificial Sight: Change your heart by changing your perspective. Researchers suggest that we should focus on the things that we want to create in our relationships rather than things that we want to avoid. 7 See family members’ needs and interests as important as your own 1 , and notice their strengths rather than their weaknesses.
Sacrificial Savoir-Faire: Savoir-faire is the ability to act with grace and tact. Sometimes this requires sacrifice. Choose your battles wisely and be willing to set aside personal interests when they conflict with couple or family well-being. 10

Word of Warning

Sacrifice is wonderful for families, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Research says that sacrifice is most helpful when it is voluntary, when it is given in moderation, when it is reciprocated (given in return), and when it is accompanied by commitment. 9 Sacrifice could easily become harmful if given in the wrong ways. Consider the following circumstances and note how sacrifice could be unhealthy:

Allie and Mark have been married for three months. They love each other, but Mark feels like Allie asks too much of him. She gives him a “honey-do” list every Saturday, and she is constantly nagging him to do things her way. He is happy to do whatever it takes to make theirs a happy marriage, but sometimes he wishes that he could do things for her without being pushed into it.

Mark’s sacrifices would better if he didn’t feel pushed to sacrifice. Remember, the most beneficial sacrifice is given willingly, with approach motivations rather than with avoidance motivations. Allie could help the situation by being less demanding, more grateful, and by doing a good turn for Mark on a more frequent occasion.

Although Melissa is smitten with her boyfriend, her family is not so fond of him. They affectionately call him “Dan the Dud.” Mel has been dating him for nearly 18 months now, and she does everything she can to convince Dan to marry her. She regularly sacrifices social events and school demands to spend time with him, but he doesn’t seem to reciprocate. In reality, she knows that he really is a dud. She is convinced that things would be better if they were married.

Melissa is right in one respect—sacrifice and commitment do go hand-in-hand, though it is foolish to believe that Dan’s behavior will change after they get married. Research shows that for men especially, long-term commitment is related to greater willingness to sacrifice. 9 Sacrifice is always most advantageous when it is reciprocated. Only then can sacrifice contribute to a relationship climate of mutual support and generosity.

Karen and Tanner have three children. Karen has a giving heart, and she rarely considers her own needs. She spends so much time serving her family that she sometimes finds herself crashing, feeling exhausted and burned out. Tanner tries to convince her to take a break to rejuvenate, but she feels guilty about taking care of her own needs.

The answer to Karen’s problem is moderation! Moms are especially susceptible to burn-out. The problem isn’t sacrifice, but how much sacrifice. We all have finite capacities, and we can only give from what we have—in time, energy, or materials. Even mothers have limits. When Karen replenishes herself, she will be more effective in sacrificing and serving others.

Church leader Gordon B. Hinckley wisely defined love in sacrificial terms: “True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one’s companion”. 6 Current research and personal experience support Hinckley’s words. When it comes to family relationships, sacrifice is the vital key to individual happiness and family unity. Kenneth Boulding said it well: “[W]ithout the kind of commitment or identity which emerges from sacrifice, it may well be that no communities, not even the family, would really stay together”. 1

Bahr, H. S., & Bahr, K. S. (2001). Families and self-sacrifice: Alternative models and meanings for family theory. Social Forces, 79(4), 1231-1258.
Cherlin, A. J. (2004). The deinstitutionalization of American marriage. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(4), 848-861.
Fincham, F. D., Stanley, S. M., Beach, S. R H. (2007). Transformative processes in marriage: An analysis of emerging trends. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 275-292.
Fowers, B. J. (2000). Beyond the myth of marital happiness: How embracing the virtues of loyalty, generosity, justice, and courage can strengthen your relationship. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hinckley, G. B. (1971, June). Except the Lord build the house . Ensign .
Pargament, K., Zinnbauer, B., Scott, A., Butter, E., Zerowin, J., & Stanik, P. (1998). Red flags and religious coping: Identifying some religious warning signs among people in crisis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54(1), 77-89.
Stanley, S. M., Whitton, S. W., Sadberry, S. L., Clements, M. L., Markman, H. J. (2006). Sacrifice as a predictor of marital outcomes. Family Process, 45, 289-303.

A Godly Endeavor

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." –Matthew 10:39

Joseph Smith taught the early saints that a “religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary to salvation” (Lectures on Faith, 6:5). For the pioneers, sacrifice meant wooden handcarts and wintry treks. Today we have no physical journeys to make in offering. What then can we give? The very definition of sacrifice is to “[give] to the Lord whatever He requires of our time, our earthly possessions, and our energies to further His work”. 4 Today there is no godly work more pressing than the interests of home and family.

In face-to-face communion with God, Moses learned that work and glory of God is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). If we want to engage in God’s work, then our mission, like His, is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. How better to promote immortality and eternal life than in a family, where human life is created and eternal principles are taught? Indeed, the family is the setting that God instituted for individuals to learn, develop, and lay hold on immortality and eternal life.

In the Family Proclamation

Although The Family: A Proclamation to the World doesn’t refer to sacrifice in word, the principle is woven throughout. Consider the following instructions from the Proclamation, and notice how sacrifice is a guiding principle in our relationships with children, spouse, extended family, and with our Father in Heaven.

Sacrificing to Marry & Bear Children: The Proclamation has much to say about the sanctity of marriage and parenthood. We learn first that couples are to “multiply and replenish the earth,” and that “children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony.”

Couples may think it is costly to set aside their personal pursuits and worldly endeavors in order to build a family, but we know that marriage and family are worth any price. President Benson taught that “[n]o sacrifice is too great to have the blessings of an eternal marriage . . . By this act of faith, we show our love to God and our regard for a posterity yet unborn”. 2 It requires faith to choose to marry and bear children even when school schedules, careers, and finances get in the way. Fortunately, our Heavenly Father provides divine assistance. When we sacrifice for His purposes, He endows us with power from on high and blesses us with commandments to keep us safe and happy.

Sacrificing for Spouse: The Proclamation instructs that “Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children” and to “help one another as equal partners.” They are also to “[employ] the sacred powers of procreation … between a man and a woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife” and to “honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”

Loving and caring for one’s spouse as an equal partner sometimes means foregoing personal interests. Maintaining chastity and fidelity sacrifices natural man carnal urges for the eternal joys of a covenant bond. These sacrifices ultimately provide couples with greater intimacy, affection, and unity.

Sacrificing to Raise Children: The Proclamation describes specific sacrifices that are required of mothers and fathers: “Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live . . . By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.”

Parenting is not for the faint-hearted! Raising children is the very heart of sacrifice, demanding a total consecration of one’s time, talents, and interests. All other demands outside the home take second-place to the sacred tasks of providing, presiding, protecting, teaching, and nurturing children.

Sacrificing for Family Members: The Proclamation says only a little about extended family, but it teaches an important responsibility. “Extended families should lend support when needed,” it says.

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” asked Cain (Genesis 4:9). We know from the teachings of Jesus Christ that we are our brother’s keepers. We covenant to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light” (Mosiah 18:9). This obligation is most important within our immediate and extended family units.

Sacrificing for Our Heavenly Father: The Proclamation helps us see that family life is happier when we do things God’s way. We learn that “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”

Implicit in the Family Proclamation is the need to sacrifice to God. We choose to do family life in His way, sacrificing some of our own ideas and trusting that the instruction that He provides is the best ways to raise our families.

Blessings and Burdens

Sometimes the demands of family life don’t seem worth the effort. Mothers sacrifice sleep, sanity, and self-interests to nurture their children. Fathers put in forty-hour workweeks to provide for their families. It isn’t always easy to obey laws of tithing, church attendance, chastity, missionary service, or the Word of Wisdom. Yet we believe that it is to our benefit to suspend our personal desires to act in the interest of Heavenly Father’s divine purposes.

To those who tire of giving, remember that the sacrifices are not without reward. Blessings often come as burdens in disguise. President Ezra Taft Benson taught that “[Our] blessings will exceed any sacrifice [we] have made. We can never get the Lord in debt to us.” 2 So central is the role of sacrifice to our happiness that President Harold B. Lee said, “I [am] persuaded of one great truth: Whenever the Lord has a great blessing for one of his children, he puts that son or daughter in the way to make a great sacrifice”. 2 Let us sacrifice willingly, and so reap the rewards of earthly peace and eternal salvation.

Sacrifice yields rewards that far outweigh the costs. It may be in this way that God “reaps where he sow[s] not” (Matthew 25:26). Just as one small seed produces many pieces of fruit, so sacrifice multiplies in effect. It is infectious, and promotes a pattern of generosity among family members. The climate that prevails in a home where individuals willingly sacrifice for each other is one of trust, love, and mutual affection.

Note that not all sacrifice is created equally, however. When we give begrudgingly of our time or resources, we may cause more harm than good. Indeed, scriptures teach us that gifts given without real intent “profiteth [us] nothing” (Moroni 7:6-8). When we give willingly, sacrifice becomes a reward in its own right. It is a blessing rather than a burden.

United and Selfless

Unity is the champion of sacrifice, and selfishness is its destroyer. President Benson recommended that we replace selfishness with sacrifice:

“One of Satan’s greatest tools is pride: to cause a man or woman to center so much attention on self that he or she becomes insensitive to their Creator or fellow beings. It’s a cause for discontent, divorce, teenage rebellion, family indebtedness, and most other problems we face. If you would find yourself, learn to deny yourself for the blessing of others. Forget yourself and find someone who needs your service, and you will discover the secret to the happy, fulfilled life”. 2

Sacrifice is less of an action than it is a process of becoming. A change of heart is required. As we cultivate a giving heart, sacrifice can become the natural way to live virtuously.

"The principle of sacrifice should be taught in every Latter-day Saint home and should be practiced in many simple yet important ways." 1

–Elder M. Russell Ballard

Sacrifice is a lofty principle, but it is best expressed in ordinary settings. Consider applying sacrifice in some of the following ways:

Sacrifice the impulse to anger. Speak kindly to family members when they speak or behave in unbecoming ways.
Sacrifice time spent in personal pursuits to spend time with a family member.
Sacrifice your negative perceptions for more flattering views of others; rather than magnifying faults, look for the good in family members.

Elder Robert D. Hales taught this principle when he advised that “The secret of a happy marriage is to protect the Achilles’ heel and not take advantage of the weaknesses of those you know the best, love the most, and ultimately can hurt the most.” 3

Give gifts to family members; gifts could include material goods, service, attention, or time.
Sacrifice your personal hurts in exchange for healing. Forgive generously and refuse to take offense when wronged.
Teach your children to sacrifice. Your example of willingness to sacrifice for Heavenly Father through obedience to the commandments is one of the greatest gifts you can give.

The Wise Gift

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf 6 reminds us to “forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice. Good sacrifices give in exchange for something of far greater worth, while lesser sacrifices give in exchange for something of negligible value. He compares the good sacrifice of a parent giving up sleep to soothe a child after a nightmare with the foolish sacrifice of a mother staying up all night to make the perfect accessory for her daughter’s Sunday dress.

“Every person and situation is different, and a good sacrifice in one instance might be a foolish sacrifice in another. How can we tell the difference for our own situation? We can ask ourselves, ‘Am I committing my time and energies to the things that matter most?’ There are so many good things to do, but we can’t do all of them. Our Heavenly Father is most pleased when we sacrifice something good for something far greater with an eternal perspective.”

The Atoning Sacrifice

"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for [our] brethren."

–1 John 3:16

The scriptures remind us that “the great and last sacrifice” is not of man, but is an infinite and eternal sacrifice (Alma 34:10). Without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our earthly sacrifices would mean nothing. Because Jesus Christ overcame death and hell, family relationships are eternal, and we know that our small daily sacrifices will benefit our families now and into eternity. Elder M. Russell Ballard reminds us of the central and pivotal role of our Savior’s sacrifice:

“Having power over life and death, He chose to submit himself to pain, ridicule, and suffering, and offered His life as a ransom for our sins. Because of His love, He suffered both body and spirit to a degree beyond our comprehension and took upon Himself our sins if we repent. Through His personal sacrifice, He provided a way for us to have our sins forgiven and, through Him, to find our way back into the presence of our Heavenly Father”. 1

Sacrifice is central to our Eternal Father’s plan for families. Our small daily sacrifices act as reminders of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. We will develop greater reverence for the Savior’s atonement when we thus act in his similitude. When we sacrifice at home, we remember that “This is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal” (Alma 34:14).

Written by Jenny Stewart, Research Assistant, and edited by Stephen F. Duncan, professor in the School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.

Ballard, M. R. (1992, May). The blessings of sacrifice . Ensign.
Benson, E. T. (1979, May). This is a day of sacrifice . Ensign.
Hales, R. D. (2011, September). A little heaven on earth . Ensign, 45-49.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (2009). Gospel principles . Chapter 26: Sacrifice, 149-154.
The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (1995, November). The family: A proclamation to the world . Ensign, 102.
Uchtdorf, D. F. (2011, October). Forget me not . Ensign.

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The Theology of Sacrifice

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The biblical idea of sacrifice concerns the way of approach to God, finding acceptance before him by means of an acceptable substitute offered in place of the sinner and bearing the curse of sin.

This essay surveys the idea of sacrifice through the Old Testament in order to determine its intended significance. Next, this essay surveys the significance of the saving death of Christ as it is presented in these sacrificial categories. Special attention is given to Hebrews 9–10.

Introduction

The idea and practice of sacrifice is prominent throughout the biblical narrative. There is at least a hint of it as far back as Genesis 3:21, where God provides coats of skin for Adam and Eve. In Genesis 4:2-5 we read of the sacrifices offered by Cain and Abel, who presumably learned of the practice from Adam and Eve. We then read of sacrifices offered by Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 12:7-8; 13:4, 18; 22:13), Isaac (Gen. 26:25), Jacob (Gen. 31:54; 33:20; 35:1-7; 46:1), and Job (1:5; 42:8). In Exodus and Leviticus, of course, the theme explodes. God delivers Israel from Egypt so that they may go and offer sacrifice to him (Exod. 3:18; 5:3, etc.; cf. 17:15), and it is by sacrifice, in fact, that they are delivered (Exod. 12). And in Exodus 20ff and in Leviticus God gives Moses detailed instructions for establishing and carrying out the sacrificial system that was to mark Israel’s worship under the terms of the old covenant. Various kinds of sacrifices were to be offered (the burnt offering, the guilt offering, the sin offering, the peace offering) at various times and for various specific purposes. Coming to the New Testament the practice of sacrifice is much less prominent, but the language of sacrifice dominates with reference to the death of Christ. Our objective here is to uncover the meaning and significance of sacrifice in the Old Testament in order better to discern the saving value of the death of Christ as explained by the New Testament writers.

Sacrifice in the Old Testament

As already observed, the idea of sacrifice begins in the early chapters of Genesis at the dawn of history. The significance tied to the coats of skin provided for Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21) is not immediately evident but can be understood more fully only by looking back from later revelation. All we can say at this point is that God covered their shame in a way that involved death.

Likewise the significance of the respective offerings of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:2-5) is not immediately evident. We are told only that Cain’s offering was “an offering of the fruit of the ground” (v. 3), that Abel’s was “of the firstborn of his flock” (v. 4), and that the Lord “had regard for” (i.e., accepted) Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s (vv. 4-5). Assuming that Cain and Abel learned the idea and duty of offering to God from their parents (Gen. 3:21) we might further conjecture that Cain’s offering was a departure from the norm, but with no more information than we are given at this point this is just conjecture. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews repeats that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and adds that it was offered “by faith” and that by it Abel was “commended as righteous” (Heb. 11:4). So much seems implicit in the Genesis narrative, but we must survey further revelation to see just how it is so.

The precise purpose of Noah’s sacrifice (Gen. 8:20-21) is not explicitly stated, only that “the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma” and promised continued blessing. This notion of “pleasing aroma” surely does not indicate that the smoking meat “smelled good” but that God was pleased with what the sacrifice signified and so on that basis promised blessing. The idea of satisfaction is not far away, but we will need further revelation to confirm this.

In Genesis 22 God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. Before the sacrifice was actually carried out, however, God provided a ram to die in Isaac’s place. Here the idea of divinely-provided substitution is prominent (cf. John 3:16; Rom. 8:32).

Although Job’s sacrifices (1:5) are not precisely defined we are told that they were offered to God because of sin. Likewise it was because of the sins of Job’s friends and God’s consequent anger against them that they were commanded to offer sacrifice (42:7-8). Here it is rather explicit that sacrifice is for the purpose of appeasing divine wrath against sinners.

In the command to sacrifice the Lamb of Passover (Exod. 12) the notion of sin is presumed, and the ideas of substitution (v.3, 13), rescue from divine judgment (v.12, 23), the necessity of blood (v.13, 22) become prominent. By the sacrifice of a qualified lamb whose blood was properly applied each Israelite household escaped the death of God’s judgment.

With God’s instructions concerning sacrifice given in Leviticus the theme begins to receive more explicit definition. The repeated occurrence of “sin” and phrases such as “if anyone sins” (or similar) and “for sin” scores of times throughout the book and the requirement that sacrifices be offered “confessing sin” all specify that it is sin that occasions the sacrifices and gives rise to their need. The descriptive terms “guilt offering” and “sin offering” and the requirements that the sacrifice itself be “without blemish” are reflective of the same. Similarly, the often repeated vocabulary of “atonement” ( kaphar / exilaskomai , indicating propitiation, appeasement ) and “forgiven” specify their purpose. Leviticus 5:10 serves well to summarize: “the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.” On the Day of Atonement the priest was required to “lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins” (16:22). This symbolic action was to signify the transference of sin to the animal who, in turn, would “bear all their [Israel’s] iniquities on itself.” Elsewhere in Leviticus this oft-repeated expression “bear sin” consistently connotes responsibility for sin and liability to judgment (5:1, 17; 7:18; 10:17, etc.; cf. Isa. 53:12; 1Pet. 2:24). The killing of the animal thus signifies the divine judgment that sin merits. The symbolism of laying hands on the sacrificial animal, confessing sin, and then the ritual slaughter of the animal therefore conveys the idea of deliverance by substitution. Forgiveness is secured by substitutional sacrifice. Finally, the repeated assurance that the sacrifice was a “pleasing aroma to the Lord” symbolizes God’s satisfaction with the sacrifice and acceptance of the sinner.

Observations

Old Testament sacrifice was intended to signify more than mere homage. The significance was that of securing forgiveness, expiation of sin, through the offering of a substitute. The offeror is not portrayed as a mere creature but specifically as a sinner, a sinful creature in need of forgiveness. The offeror comes with a consciousness of sin seeking restoration to God’s favor by means of the acceptable sacrifice. The sacrificial victim itself is an intermediary, a substitute providing expiation. It bears the sin of the worshiper who receives forgiveness by that substitutional sin-bearing.

All this is to say that it belongs to the very nature of sacrifice that it is directed first to God. That is, it is designed to influence God, to appease him and satisfy his demand of judgment, and it is only with this satisfaction secured that the worshiper finds forgiveness.

The prominent ideas in Old Testament sacrifice are sin, guilt, and judgment on the one hand and satisfaction, expiation, forgiveness, and reconciliation on the other.

Sacrifice in Old Covenant Context

In its historical setting these sacrifices were provided in order to answer the question, How can a holy God live in the midst of a sinful people? In redeeming Israel from Egypt and in establishing them as a theocratic nation at Sinai (the old covenant) God had made Israel his own people. He pledged to be their God and to dwell with them accordingly. But how can his holy presence among sinners be established? The sacrificial system was given to answer this problem.

Of course there are questions that necessarily remain. Can an animal actually take the place of a man or woman? Can the blood of an animal actually atone for the sin of a nation? And if the sacrifices do indeed secure God’s favor and forgiveness, why must they be repeated?

The New Testament will take up these kinds of questions, but at the very least we can say that the Old Testament sacrificial system established the structure and frame of reference with regard to God’s redemptive purpose: Sinners may obtain divine favor if an acceptable substitute could be found to offer to God in sacrifice.

The Death of Christ as a Sacrifice

All this provides the background for the New Testament’s frequent description of the death of Christ in sacrificial terms; indeed, it cannot be understood otherwise. When Jesus himself and the New Testament writers employ language such as “give my life a ransom,” “ransom in his blood,” “by his blood,” “the blood of his cross,” “my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins,” “reconciled by his blood,” “justified by his blood,” “propitiation by his blood,” “through the death of his cross,” “made peace through the blood of his cross,” “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,” “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God,” “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,” “the lamb which takes away sin,” “he bore our sin,” “was made sin for us,” “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having been made a curse for us,” and so on, they direct us to understand our Lord’s death in sacrificial categories. The terminology of propitiation, ransom, redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation, all find their meaning against the backdrop of Old Testament sacrifice.

All this teaches us just how it is that Jesus’ death effected our salvation. Our Lord’s death was that of a sacrifice. On the cross he offered himself to God in our place, bearing our sin and its deserved judgment; thus satisfying God’s just demands against us he frees us from our sin and reconciles us to God. All that the Old Testament sacrifices symbolized the Lord Jesus actually accomplished in his saving work. The former sacrifices were symbolic and anticipatory of what was actual in Christ’s offering of himself on our behalf. Just as the Old Testament sacrifices were directed first to God (propitiation) in order then to effect expiation, so our Lord’s death was offered to God (Eph. 5:2; Heb.9:14). His sacrifice of himself for his people was in God’s estimation “a fragrant offering” (Eph. 5:2) effecting propitiation (Rom. 3:24; Heb. 2:17; 1Jn. 2:2; 4:10), satisfying his just demands and thus appeasing his wrath and, in turn, expiating sin. Just as through the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement the people of Israel were, in the person of their representative priest, brought behind the curtain into the holy of holies, so also through the death of Christ we are brought into the very presence of God (Heb. 10:19-20; cf. Matt. 27:51; John 2:19-21).

On the one hand, then, we may speak of the Old Testament sacrifices as prospective, anticipating and symbolizing the saving work that Christ would actually accomplish in his death (Heb. 9:9; 10:1; cf. Col. 2:17). To say the same another way, the writer to the Hebrews specifies that the older sacrifices were in fact “copies” of the “true” sacrifice that Christ offered (Heb. 8:2, 5; 9:23-24; cf. 9:11-12). That is, Jesus’ sacrifice is the “original,” the reality – ultimately, his sacrifice was not patterned after the Old Testament sacrifices; rather, they were patterned after his coming sacrifice – the true sacrifice of which they were but a distant shadow.

Hebrews on the Sacrifice of Christ

The writer to the Hebrews highlights in several ways how the sacrifice of Christ excels the sacrifices of the old covenant.

Christ’s sacrifice was offered only once (9:6-7, 11-12, 25-26, 28; 10:1, 10-12, etc.). The older sacrifices had to be repeated over and again, year after year. This would leave the thinking worshiper with doubts as to their real value (10:2-4), with little reason to assume that even the repeated offering of an animal could satisfy God or remove human guilt? The happy announcement of the gospel is that the sacrifice of Christ was of such value that it needed to be offered only once for all. Christ’s saving work is a finished work (cf. John 19:30), accomplished “once for all.”
Christ’s sacrifice effected forgiveness (9:9-10, 12; 10:1, 4, 11, 18). Sin was the problem addressed in sacrifice – it demanded removal. The repetition of the older sacrifices testified to their inability to deal with sin with finality. They were inadequate. The sacrifice was not of sufficient value. But our Lord offered himself (9:12, 13, 26), a sacrifice of supreme value (cf. Heb. 1-2), effectual in removing sin. Again, what the older sacrifices only anticipated the sacrifice of Christ actually accomplished, and it is therefore able to “purge the conscience” (9:14) of guilt.
Christ’s sacrifice was accepted in heaven , the true temple (8:2, 5; 9:1, 9, 11-12, 23, 24; 10:1). That is to say, it was not prospective of anything. It did not symbolize or anticipate the accomplishing of atonement. Accepted by God himself, in the true temple, forgiveness is assured.
Christ’s sacrifice gained access to God (Heb. 9:7-8; 10:19-22). The old sacrificial system was designed to demonstrate that the way to God is not just open to anyone on any terms (v. 8). There must be a qualified priest and an acceptable sacrifice offered in an acceptable way. Even so, the people at large must stay back – only the high priest had access into the holy of holies and that just once a year and by a prescribed ceremony of sacrifice. We must not presume. It is a fearful thing to approach the holy God. But by the sacrifice of Christ the way now is open. All who come by him, on the ground of his sacrificial work, are accepted (cf. Matt. 27:51; John 2:19-21).

At the climax of this discussion the writer draws several applications, marked by the word “therefore”:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:19-24).

That is, if the sacrifice of Christ, offered once for all, was accepted in heaven itself, effecting forgiveness and gaining access to God, then let us be bold , confident in approaching God assured of our acceptance. Let us be confident , assured of our acceptance there with unwavering faith. Let us persevere through any difficulty with confidence of our final salvation, and let us encourage one another to the same.

Concluding Thoughts

The theme of sacrifice, then, takes us to the heart of the gospel and the essence of the Christian faith.

In a very real sense it [the theme of sacrifice] constitutes Christianity. It is this which differentiates Christianity from other religions. Christianity did not come into the world to proclaim a new morality and, sweeping away all the supernatural props by which men were wont to support their trembling, guilt-stricken souls, to throw them back on their own strong right arms to conquer a standing before God for themselves. It came to proclaim the real sacrifice for sin which God had provided in order to supersede all the poor fumbling efforts which men had made and were making to provide a sacrifice for sin for themselves; and, planting men’s feet on this, to bid them go forward. 1

Father’s sacrifice

What might be the biggest sacrifice ? Who is the person who can sacrifice anything for the sake of just a smile? Yes it’s Father.

We all know that mother is the strongest person in the world. But did you know that a father is the one who sacrifices his own dreams for the sake of his family!

It’s not just a word but there is a huge feeling in it. For girls, a father is their first hero and first love but for boys, he is a hidden hero and first guide. Most of you don’t recognise the hurdles that fathers face just to make you smile at the end of the day.

Just like you, fathers will also have dreams to achieve. They will have planned something for the future, but when it comes to something you need to buy, he sacrifices all his dreams just to get you the item or thing. He never lets you know that he was dreaming to get something for himself.

Mothers are the ones who work day and night without any off or leave but same goes to fathers. They need to keep working just to make you free from burden and keep you happy. Mothers express their feelings to children but fathers never open up.

He is the only person who always keeps his problems and worries to himself and only shares the happiness. The biggest sacrifice is nothing but giving up their dreams which fathers do without even thinking for more than one second.

When a man gets married, he starts to feel the change in him. He becomes the head of the family and all the burden shifts upon him. He never let anyone know the struggles he is facing instead he always smiles back at his children.

To feed the family and take care of the children, he starts working more and more. He even sacrifices the daily things he wants to buy just to make sure his children are getting everything they need. He wears the same dress again and again so that you can buy more clothes with the money.

He may ride a regular bike or sometimes even don’t buy one just to get you the vehicle you like. Fathers have always been so generous and helping, but most of them hate fathers because they don’t buy you what you want immediately.

Most of them don’t even talk to him because he is strict. Some feel shy to even sit beside him. What’s the shyness in being with your own father? It’s the attachment. He gives up all the attachments that are to be made when you are small because he was busy working to make up your future.

Be with your father and talk to him regularly. Now it’s your time to take care of him and his needs. Please take care of your father. They might not open up but it’s your duty to be with them.

The second strongest person in one’s life and the most sacrificial person.

self-knowledge is essential for personal growth, decision making, and accurate self-assessment. all thanks to dr mandla for his spiritual support and ...

father\'s guide and provide for success and safety of family but never tell anyone

i have no words to praise your article.and like me there are so many who will do the same. no doubt a father\' s sacrifices are innumerable. a person ...

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Essay on sacrifice 2 Models

Last updated Friday , 15-03-2024 on 11:07 am

Essay on sacrifice, a short essay on sacrifice is moral and religious behavior, many models such as a paragraph on sacrifice and its effects on the individual and society, an essay on the sacrifice of parents for the sake of their children, sacrifice is actions, not words, self-sacrifice for the sake of the homeland is one of the highest types of sacrifice and an essay on sacrifice for the sake of making others happy.

Interesting topics, written in an easy style, suitable for the fifth and sixth grades of primary school, and the first, second, and third grades of preparatory and high school, in which I present wonderful examples of sacrifice.

It is also important that we work on developing this great moral behavior among citizens, by honoring the people who sacrificed for others. These people are real heroes and deserve thanks and praise.

Essay on sacrifice

The character of sacrifice is a great character, which only a great person can possess. Essay on sacrifice includes fine examples of sacrifice. Sacrifice is not easy, not all people can give the most precious thing they have for others. Sacrifice is an attribute that transcends its owner and raises his worth.

Therefore, only good people who love the benefit of others do it, and therefore if we look at our reality, we will find that the people who sacrifice for the sake of others are few, especially whenever corruption spreads and bad morals prevail, and people are busy collecting money and forgetting to raise children on good morals.

Sacrifice definition

Sacrifice is when a person voluntarily gives up something that belongs to him, or his right to obtain it, to others in order to make them happy and achieve success for them. In this case, he prefers others over himself, and prefers to make them happy and benefit them. In many cases, the sacrificer will be affected negatively throughout his life because of this sacrifice.

One of the sacrifices that no one can deny is the sacrifice of the mother and the father for the sake of their children. It is a sacrifice that takes place every day without complaining or grumbling, so that the children do not feel these sacrifices and consider them for granted (normal).

Sacrifice is a moral and religious behavior

Sacrifice is a great moral behavior, and only a person who was raised to love goodness for others, and whose family cultivated sacrifice for the sake of others, would do it, and taught him that happiness is not real unless those around you are happy. In our essay on sacrifice, it is important to write about the importance of spreading this good behavior among citizens.

And when we look at the characteristics of people who sacrifice for the sake of others, we find that they are among the most sincere and kind-hearted people, and the most merciful of them towards the weak, because sacrifice is only issued by a person of decent morals.

This is because sacrifice is preferring others over oneself, and this is a very difficult thing for anyone to do, and it requires high morals and faith that this sacrifice will not be lost in vain.

Sacrifice is a religious behavior in the first place, as all monotheistic religions urge sacrifice for the happiness of others, and for the protection of homelands.

The Messengers were the role models for humanity in patience, sacrifice and enduring hardships, all in order to spread goodness and good morals among people.

Kinds of sacrifice

There are many types of sacrifice, so you should mention some of them in the essay on sacrifice. It is certain that every person of us lived a situation and made a decision to sacrifice, so sometimes he was the sacrificer and at other times he was the recipient of the sacrifice, and there are many examples of that, and we can mention the following:

Sacrifice effort: In many cases, the sacrifice is an effort you make to help a weak or elderly person meet his needs, or to do the work instead of him. An example that occurs on a daily basis is giving up your seat on public transportation to a woman, an elderly man, or a pregnant woman.
Sacrificing time: Sacrificing time is a form of sacrifice, and you can sacrifice some time to help a colleague understand his lessons, teach someone to write and read, or do other charitable causes.
Sacrifice money: Sacrifice money is one of the most common types of sacrifice among people, as all monotheistic religions urge to help the poor. Therefore, the rich donate part of their money to the poor, and that is voluntarily. Money is also donated to social organizations, and the rich contribute to building hospitals, schools, universities, roads, facilities, and more.
Sacrificing social position: We often find that someone gives up his position to another person voluntarily, because he feels that that person is more deserving of this position than him, or because he wants this person to succeed and rise above him. And I saw in one of the running competitions the first contestant fell a very short distance before the finish line, and he could not get up, and the surprise was when the next contestant helped him to get the first place. The contestant gave up the victory for himself and sacrificed for someone else. This contestant has won everyone’s appreciation and respect.
Self-sacrifice: Self-sacrifice is considered one of the highest types of sacrifice, and it requires a person to be convinced of the cause for which he sacrifices himself, and many soldiers sacrifice themselves in defense of their homelands. Their heroic work will remain a crown over their heads, and we will remember them throughout our lives, for their favor to us is great.

Parents sacrifice

There is no doubt that the sacrifice of fathers and mothers is one of the greatest deeds, as the mother sacrifices her comfort and health since pregnancy, and suffers many health problems during pregnancy, then suffers more during childbirth, so that she may die during childbirth. So you should mention ,in our essay on sacrifice, the sacrifices of the mother and father.

Since the mother gives birth to her child, a new phase begins in her life. It is a phase in which there is no rest, as the mother gives up her physical comfort, sleep and life regime in order to take care of her child.

The mother continues to care for her child, and the problems multiply. The mother tries to provide her child with a healthy, happy life filled with love and tenderness. At every stage of the child’s life, the mother finds herself facing bigger problems and challenges that she must deal with.

The long journey continues until the child becomes an adult who can depend on himself. In fact, the role of the mother does not end, no matter how old her children have grown and become men and women. Rather, they turn to their mother whenever they encounter a problem, or feel that they need love and tenderness.

Likewise, the father’s sacrifice is great, as he works and toils in order to provide the necessary money for the family, and thus he gives up his comfort and enjoyment of his time, and prefers buying the family’s needs rather than buying his own needs.

How to acquire the sacrifice characteristic

There is no doubt that it is nice to accustom our children from childhood to this great moral, which is the moral of sacrifice, and there are some factors that help in acquiring this moral, including:

Accustom yourself to love the good of people, and help them as much as possible.
Accompany people with good manners, because a friend has a great influence on your behavior.
Get rid of selfishness and self-love, and get rid of bad morals.
Eliminate indifference to the feelings of others.
Be brave and enterprising, and do not care about the opinions of others as long as you think you are doing the right thing.
Reading the history of your country gives you feelings of patriotism and respect for the martyrs who sacrificed themselves in order to liberate their country, or to provide a better life for future generations.
Follow religious teachings, which urge social solidarity, and help the poor and needy.

At the end of the essay on sacrifice, I dealt with the definition of sacrifice, and that it is a word that denotes a great work, and I presented a paragraph about the types of sacrifice, and what are the greatest types of sacrifice, including the sacrifice of parents for the sake of their children.

In the end, we cannot deny that sacrifice is a moral and religious behavior, and the prophets are our role models in sacrifice, as they spent effort, time and hardship in order to spread goodness and peace among people.

In conclusion of the essay on sacrifice I hope you have benefited.

To read more, please click on the following link:

Essay on my parents
Essay on independence day
Speech on discipline

Essays On My Hobby 2 Models

Essay on old age home

Essay on farmer

The Sacrifices Made By The Declaration Signers…

Happy July 4 to everyone here in America. Just a reminder of the price that was paid for our freedom. I honestly just did not know the great sacrifices that these men paid… Makes me love this country even more.

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What happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence?

This is the Price They Paid

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: “For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

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Feb 19, 2021

The Freedom of Self-Sacrifice

Mark Damien Delp

Zaytuna College

Mark Damien Delp’s research interests include logic and the history of Christian philosophy.

Rediscovering the Ancient Roots of Moral Action in the Late-Modern Twilight of Free Will

And We Are Trying, N. Roerich, n.d.

Among the revolutionary changes brought about by modern technology and its growing role in shaping human behavior, the most alarming have to do with our ability—and right—to come to our own decisions about things that bear on our dignity as human persons. We continue to have vital human impulses, natural loves and fears, aspirations that resemble those of premodern societies, and sensibilities that find their home in a great variety of religious institutions. All the same, it seems that in our acquired habitual interface with social media platforms, we are actively ceding the essential part of our humanity, rational volition, to an intimate but mostly unnoticed symbiosis with a nonhuman mind, whose coercive thought and will mix so thoroughly with our own that we can hardly tell where one ends and the other begins.

Ultimately, however, the hope is that we won’t just use computers—we’ll become them. Today, cognitive scientists often compare the brain to hardware and the mind to the software that runs on it. But a software program is just information, and in principle there’s no reason why the information of consciousness has to be encoded in neurons. 1

The most evident sign of this compromise to our free will is found in the fact that we now make most of our decisions not by deliberation and consultation, which draw from the deeper regions of human passion and require the ordering influence of our native reason, but by subtle inclinations of desire and fear that, detached from that reason, are shaped and channeled by the artificial intelligence of corporate algorithms.

“When all that says ‘it is good’ has been debunked, what says ‘I want’ remains.” 2

It is common knowledge in the social media industry that people do not really choose to follow trends but are moved to do so by subliminal coercion. Immersed in the confidence that one is making personal decisions, one actually merely submits to the ephemeral pleasure of participating in mass, collective decisions, the consequences of which neither interest the individual nor touch his conscience, the moral witness of all acts of free will. By an artificially induced necessity, we now think algorithmically; although algorithms themselves are human constructs, like other mathematical systems they measure only a small, quantitative part of us that is detached from our qualitative aspects, the unity of which we mysteriously grasp in our idea of the human person. Nonetheless, many have begun to suspect that we have reached a threshold at which a real choice must be made—namely, whether to preserve the primordial spark of our humanity or, appalled and repulsed by late-modern presentations of human history on the one hand and entranced by stories of a “transhuman” 3 life on the other, to leave it behind once and for all. Presuming that the former is the only choice a human being can make—choosing, after all, being a human thing to do 4 —the immediate task is to find out what is happening to us in the human interface with social media algorithms. 5 Fortunately, there is growing evidence, produced by many who are intimately involved in creating, managing, and using social media, that reveals how corporate algorithms have been compromising our free will and, consequently, changing the innate orientation of our moral compass.

W e are “losing our free will .” Through algorithms that monitor our behavior and activities, Google and other free social media are changing our behavior without our even knowing it. 6

The vast majority of us communicate with these algorithms far more often than we speak with human persons; accustomed to thinking of online platforms as merely passively registering consumer demands and facilitating routine searches for information, most people are ignorant of or unconcerned with the platforms’ more important task, which is at once to study and to manipulate human behavior, shaping and channeling our decision-making processes from relatively superficial to profoundly subliminal levels of consciousness.

What might once have been called advertising must now be understood as continuous behavior modification on a titanic scale, but without informed consent. 7

You work on algorithms... until you find a formula that will cause behavior change, or behavior pattern change, in a predictable manner.... This is something entirely new in the world and distinct from any previous advertising, or policing, or statecraft. 8

The actual user interface can harm individuals, especially children, 9 but the injuries, psychological as well as physiological, can be concealed or explained away by citing the overall benefit of that interface to consumers. To some observers, however, the extent to which social media corporations will go to pursue coercive agendas reveals a capacity and commitment to effect deeper and more permanent modifications in human behavior than was heretofore possible in the advertising industry. Software engineers have become, for all intents and purposes, social engineers.

We’re being tracked and measured constantly, and receiving engineered feedback all the time. We’re being hypnotized little by little by technicians we can’t see, for purposes we don’t know. We’re all lab animals now. 10

Given the societal saturation of handheld devices, it is not surprising that people in every sector of society are now thoroughly used to conducting their business by using online platforms and speaking to computer simulations of human voices; but that they have so easily shifted into using a machine interface in order to communicate, in the most intimate fashion, with loved ones and friends continues to be astounding, especially given the invisible audience of anonymous data harvesters that not only monitor our every word but statistically harvest our emotions.

The Ancient World: Free Will amid Suffering and Love

Of all the things we possess, our rational free will is the most precious, but it is usually only in the shock of its imminent loss—or, in the present context, theft—that we cling to it with the appropriate ferocity. The question of whether free will is real or an illusion 11 ceases to matter when it is existentially threatened—when, that is, a panic takes hold of our body and mind, making us cry out for a sense of purpose we may have never known. While there is no shortage of witnesses to the terrible risks posed to humanity by online platforms, especially social media, the strength of current statistical analyses and compilations of the available data on the crisis is offset by a lack of qualitative reflection concerning the spiritual structures of human moral agency, which have traditionally been treated by religion. Specifically, Western civilization presupposes a vast literature on “the free choice of the will,” 12 the culmination of which we find in Thomas Aquinas’s writings in moral theology. The common characteristic of this tradition is its aim not only to guide human actions toward virtuous ends but to discover the inner workings of the human reason and will that are required to achieve them. There exists, in short, an alternate fund of research, equally scientific in its own fashion, that meticulously documents the subtle order involved in the many stages of rational volition as well as its influence on the passions—i.e., desire, anger, fear, and so on. Seeking to give them measure and grace, the authors in this tradition recognized that controlling the passions was neither desirable nor possible. The research of contemplative intuition revealed that, together with these impulses, the internal expansiveness of imagination and intellect sets to work in the various dimensions of the will, from which then flow practical acts that mold external circumstances into well-ordered and harmonious wholes. The path of moral virtue, though beginning in robust confrontation with external circumstances, always saw its end in internal perfection.

Man and Machine, Hannah Hoch, 1921

Aquinas called moral acts “human acts,” for he held that moral virtues make sense only in the context of the entire human person that is perfected by them. But the fundamental structure, itself premoral, that allows the human being to act at all is the network of means and ends, which also happens to be the language of teleology. In his Summa Theologica , 13 he maintains that “all things, by desiring their own perfection, desire God himself.” To modern sensibilities, this will seem to be merely one of many anthropomorphic statements to which ancient philosophers were given in their attempts to account for an order in nature that requires a mathematical language they did not possess. Despite what we are usually told, both modern and ancient sciences have held, as a fundamental principle, that nature is built on rational structures. The greatest difference between the two perspectives has, rather, to do with whether there is teleology in nature—that is, whether all things act for the sake of something . For Aristotle, to whom Aquinas was obliged for the background of his statement, every being moves toward the perfection of its own nature by something approximating human desire, be it natural impulse, instinct, or the complex affective life of the higher animals. To take some obvious examples, birds build nests for the sake of propagating, and a single bird will fly in the face of a predator for the sake of protecting its mate. The bird’s passion, as it were, drives the rational goal of preserving its young even while the rational goal gives structure to the passion. Thus, while moderns have been content to limit rationality in nature to mathematical patterns and causal predictability, the ancients required in things a final causality that accounts not only for rational structures but also the vital forces that sustain them. But while nature as a whole acts rationally, they held that only the human species actually possesses a rational faculty . This legacy of teleology in the philosophy of nature laid the groundwork for later scholastic philosophers to treat the rationality of human actions as a special application, as it were, of the more universal order of natural causes. While the natural philosopher conceived of the final cause of things as that for the sake of which they move by natural impulse, the ethicist posited the final cause in human acts as the end for the sake of which one chooses the means. And while other animals simply desire the end, the human animal desires it self-consciously as “good.”

The second source for Aquinas’s statement can be found in the theology of the early church, which, though it agreed with Aristotle that all things desire in analogous ways their own perfection, was compelled to expand his teleology to conform to the belief that all things are created by God—that is, they are creatures. The church fathers assigned, therefore, a twofold end to all things: the first being their natural end, which is simply the mature form of their species (a baby robin works hard to be a fully grown robin); the second being their providential end, the end that makes their specific motions contribute to a universal or cosmic plan designed by their creator. 14 It was this second end that ultimately accounted for the fact that a rational structure, such as a robin’s nest, can be constructed by a creature without a rational faculty. Traditional Christian theology, therefore, added to Aristotle’s scientific anthropomorphism a comprehensive “theomorphism.”

All things move for the sake of ends; but we alone can will the end in such a way that we reflectively evaluate the means that can achieve it and choose them by deliberation. Moreover, the complexity of human acts, their layered self-consciousness, and the variety of their volitional modes require a far greater amount of time and space to reach their completion than those of other creatures. The difference is staggering if one considers the great variety that can be found in human plans, some of which take many years to unfold and include a vast network of means and ends by which the final end might be accomplished. The rich rationality of human acts demands a fullness of time and space, but it is the end, which comes from outside us, that constitutes the intelligible light by which our acts derive meaning and purpose. Accordingly, we love the end not merely as a goal or terminus but as something good in itself. Though we may not love the means, it has traditionally been a mark of maturity in a person to respect them, to develop a relation with them that is marked by patient attention and care as to their own requirements.

The self-consciously rational and reflective nature of the human network of means and ends begets another property unique to humans—namely, that some means become so desirable in themselves that they become ends in their own right, even as they continue to be the means toward a more remote and greater good. This property of human means is an important witness to the spatiotemporal dimensions required by human acts. Consider the arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, which, though regarded as the means for achieving wisdom, reflect the beauty of that end to such an extent that they have become, over millennia of use, ends and goods in themselves. With respect to most means, however, the best we can hope for is toleration, as is often the case with those we accomplish each day merely “to get on with our lives.” Consequently, a crucial part of deliberating as to which means we should choose to achieve the end is finding the ones that are the least burdensome—that is, that involve the least suffering. We are sometimes constrained to choose between means that are very unpleasant indeed, and which only a very beloved or necessary end can justify by bringing them under its overarching goodness. As a rule, then, we suffer the means and enjoy the end.

There is also, however, a suffering that is proper to love, for as long as the beloved object is out of reach we must endure its absence, and the course of that endurance can be painful indeed. Further, if love did not suffer the privation of its object, there would be no such thing as the means, for we would always possess whatever we love. Love thus generates the means and, in doing so, generates their characteristic suffering. Though the suffering of privation is found in every living being, in human acts it can reach such an intensity as to become indistinguishable from the love that begets it, as we will see further on. And since, in the more complex human acts, means themselves become subordinate ends, we also suffer privation with respect to them. St. Augustine of Hippo, speaking from personal experience, noted that the excessive love of the means can result in a fatal delay in the soul’s journey to God, thus putting the love of the means into competition with the love even of our absolute and final end: happiness. We must also point out that because the network of means can range from the optional to the necessary, human acts come naturally arranged in a hierarchy of suffering and love, the latter constituting the characteristic passion regarding ends, the former the characteristic passion regarding the means. Finally, if every voluntary act involves this twofold suffering in its means and ends, and if every society is held together by voluntary acts, then every society will be made up of a network of love and suffering.

Self-Sacrifice and the Common Good

As the theoretical sciences isolate certain extreme examples of their subjects as archetypes for all the rest, so the practical science of moral theology, in the process of studying virtuous actions, seeks particular examples in which they attain extremes of passionate intensity. Such qualitative intensity in a virtue becomes all the more important to moral theology in comparison with classical ethics insofar as moral theology considers its subjects in light of their supernatural as well as their natural perfection—that is, both with respect to their remote and their proximate ends. Accordingly, loves and sufferings that society condones as common features of its normative life and, thus, considers to be ethical can be raised to such a qualitative intensity that, precisely because they disrupt the accustomed order of human passions, they require a theological consideration to account for their meaning and purpose. More to our point, when confronted by circumstances of extreme adversity, ordinary relations of love can be condensed to such a degree that the time required to reflect on them shrinks to a single instant of fierce necessity. When the mother’s naturally affectionate love for her child is immediately and mortally threatened, it can become so intense as to make her aware of nothing but things that may be enlisted in her spontaneous efforts to preserve the child’s life—things that may include her own life. For the moral theologian interested in the boundary between the natural and the supernatural virtues, 15 among the lessons to be learned from such a crisis of love is that it is a likeness to the highest kind of religious love for God, what the tradition has called “mystical love”: as the mother, in a moment of fierce loving care, has no sense of herself apart from her child, so the mystic, with an analogously fierce love for God, has no sense of herself apart from God. Here we do not speak of doing something for another but rather of being for the sake of another, the latter of which allows no time or space for self-consciousness, let alone for deliberation, counsel, or choice, the natural phases of every human act according to moral theology. Even means and ends become indistinguishable from each other when, in a single instant, love and suffering become a single passion.

Monhegan, Maine, N. Roerich, n.d.

In ancient Greek usage, the verb pasco (to suffer) commonly signified the passive experience of unpleasant as well as pleasant things; gradually, however, the verb came to signify exclusively with respect to unpleasant or inimical things. 16 At some point, one ceased to “suffer joy” at any happy circumstance, although expressions of “suffering love” managed to escape the inadvertent linguistic purge. In early Christian literature, however, pasco and its various derivatives began to be conceived in such an altered way as almost to constitute a shift in their essential meaning: in addition to signifying “bearing the burden of something distressing or painful,” it came also, and even principally, to signify “suffering for the sake of God.” 17 In subsequent Christian literature the meanings attached to suffering became even more complex, including, over and above self-denial in the pursuit of God, self-sacrifice in bearing witness to Christ. 18 In the martyr, the archetype of Christian self-sacrifice, the act of suffering became self-conscious in a way that was lacking even in heroic acts of suffering death for the sake of family or country, acts that were not done explicitly for the sake of witnessing to God. The martyr, having separated himself from concern with any object or end apart from God, deliberately, and at the height of his passion, made his very self the sole means of witnessing to Him. Indeed his self, which had always distracted him from God, had become the last privation of his love for God, the last obstacle to becoming one with Him, and, thus, it had become his suffering. And because love and suffering are correlative, the martyr’s love shared in the intensity of his suffering, much as the mother’s suffering shared in her love. Finally, as every worldly love manifests the suffering that arises from the privation of a good, so too, in the martyr’s love of the highest Good, could be found the highest expression of human privation.

But at this point one may ask, What is the purpose of these extremes of love and suffering for maintaining the bonds of society and the common good? How can they be the means for the immediate end of preserving the health and welfare of citizens? For the passions of martyrs and heroes ultimately bear witness to the dissolution, not the preservation, of the normative bonds of human relations. The mother suffers for her child, the martyr for God, but neither dies for society. 19 The mother loves nothing but her child, the martyr nothing but God, but neither of these intensive loves is capable of being shared extensively among others. These so-to-speak non-societal loves, however, are akin to the type of love designated in Greek as eros , a term that, while signifying in classical literature the intensity of romantic love, was adopted by the early church to signify the human person’s absolute love of God. And as the love of God, being free from corporeal passions, is shrouded in mystery to those who still love the things of this world, it was often qualified by the term mystical . Mystical eros was thought to be the glue that binds a solitary soul to God, and because it was every bit as exclusive as that of the mother and the martyr, it could not, per se, be the glue that binds individuals with each other in a community, even in a community of the faithful or the ecclesia . 20 In Egypt and Palestine, Christians living in the cities went out to the desert to take counsel with anchorites , 21 hermits who had renounced human society for the sake of continuous prayer. Nonetheless, the fathers of the early church believed that the love which is proper to community—namely, agape or “filial love”—was not different in kind to mystical love, and though they held that the former is weaker than the latter, by weaker they did not mean feeble or ignoble but extensive rather than intensive ; agape was designed, as it were, to be the absolute love of God expressed relatively as the love of neighbor. Their common element, that which made them extremes of the same kinship of divine love, was self-sacrificial suffering—in eros, the absolute self-sacrifice for the sake of God; in agape, the relative self-sacrifice for the sake of another. Agape, then, is mystical eros as suffered in the world.

In the ecclesia, every secular relation took on an added dimension, an otherworldliness that directed the eye beyond the beloved person to the source of love itself, and did so without diminishing the love of human kinship. With agape, the benevolent relations of human society and the affection generated therein became at once heightened in their intensity and strengthened in their adhesive power to bind persons to each other, for all relations were essentially self-sacrificial. The filial love of agape is essentially relative in the sense that one calls the members of one’s extended family “relatives,” but because it is otherworldly as well, it inspires a hope that turns the mind to the love that is not mediated by any worldly relation. Far from constituting a utopia (which makes itself the end), or a dystopia (which is the actual end of a utopia), the ecclesia might be called a prostopia , a community that, qua community, is directed toward and in essential relation to another place—the place of God. The expression in Greek for relation is pros ti , literally, “toward something,” but in an ecclesia, the relation between citizens is raised to the level of being pros theon , a being-toward-God. Here we see the twofold end of all things, mentioned above, as functioning in the microcosm of human society, in which each citizen is acutely conscious of his natural and supernatural end, of his love for neighbor and his love for God. Each person reminds the other of the Person of God, and in this way guarantees that the community will be filled with a supernatural joy of human kinship that, being proper to agape, does not enter into mystical eros, for which God is present to the point of making all others absent. Nonetheless, just as there can be no means without an end, so the complete love of agape would not be possible without the mystical love that transcends it.

The most important father of the early Latin church, St. Augustine, asserted that the true love of God was the only love we should enjoy as a good in itself, and that every love we have for others, be they spouses, family, or friends, can never be more than the means toward that end. He went so far as to say that we should use others for the sake of cultivating our absolute relation to God. At first glance this seems a heartless proposition, one designed not to foster love between people but to alienate them from each other, to dissolve rather than constitute the glue holding them together. But he made it quite clear that far from diminishing the legitimacy and qualitative intensity of the human love we have for each other, the love of use adds to it the acknowledgment that every love is a faint reflection of love’s finality in God. For Augustine, the love manifest in and by the ecclesia—which, as an ideal form, he held to be present seminally in every human society—is the highest love that humans possess for each other simply because it is the only love that is also self-consciously directed to the final cause of our being; in every other love and, therefore, in every other suffering, we conceal or even sever the thread that binds us to God. The members of the ecclesia, then, habitually seek to turn virtuous acts of doing things for the sake of each other into spiritual acts of being for the sake of each other, the former requiring a part, the latter the whole, of themselves. But how can there be a society so thoroughly and self-consciously founded on self-sacrifice? How can any society maintain such a psychological and spiritual tension? How can such a society last? 22

The Current Persecution of Love and Suffering

Throughout the modern age, philosophers and scientists have looked forward to and, since the nineteenth century, actively planned for the day when science, under the rubric of medicine and behavioral psychology, would have the capacity to eradicate suffering from the human condition. 23 In our present time, the technocratic systems on which we have become dependent for carrying out virtually all of our business and social communication, and which have gained the ascendency in critical areas of public policy, are aggressively implementing agendas that have, as their explicit goal, the eradication of suffering in all parts of the world. 24 Apropos of our theme in this essay, such a plan, if indeed it is as universal as it claims to be, must persecute 25 suffering all the way to its natural presence in human acts and the means and ends that underly them as their formal structure. It must, that is, somehow eradicate not only natural but supernatural human impulses and desires—the same impulses that ancient philosophers and theologians believed to be the vital forces behind the proximate and remote ends of moral actions—by abolishing the time and space in which alone they can be expressed. The vital energy of our loves, especially those that are most intense, must be rerouted to other organic mechanisms that allow for nothing but simple cause and effect relations. Relations of means and ends, consequently, must be replaced by relations of stimulus and response that are normally found only at the lowest animal level—that is, in organisms whose primitive structures, while totally lacking self-consciousness, nonetheless possess aggressive and efficient powers for propagating their own species. This means, of course, that no time or space would be left for either ecclesial or mystical acts of love and suffering. In an instructive irony, this secular plan, by eliminating the conditions for attaining the highest or final cause of human existence, can arrive only at the lowest or material cause. There can be no middle place, for that would be the natural condition of human acts, the time and space for which is always open to being contracted for one of two agendas: the cultivation of the superhuman love of religion or the enforcement of the subhuman desire of the viral algorithm.

A replica of Man at the Crossroads. The original painting was a fresco by Diego Rivera in New York City that was destroyed in 1933 before its completion.

Given that, in the modern age, the “hard” sciences have eliminated teleology from the legitimate concerns of research, it should not be surprising that the “soft” social sciences have imitated them by seeking to eliminate teleology in human acts, a plan that, by the reckoning of ancient teleology, must eventually arrive at collapsing the time required for willing the end as a good, deliberating on and choosing the means in a virtuous manner, and, finally, enjoying the end in one’s possession. Accordingly, just as the natural sciences have reduced the manifest teleology in nature to the bare material mechanism of cause and effect, so the social sciences have reduced the rich teleology of human intentions to the simple dichotomy of doing “this or that.” Finally, as physics has done away with metaphysics and theology, so behavioral psychology has done away with ethics and moral theology—and all ostensibly for the sake of control . Again, without suffering, there can be no natural or supernatural love; the human will at best know only a kind of primitive affection for the correct functioning of a mechanism that is not human but infrahuman, a microbial or viral sort of life.

But we have not yet followed the secular plan to its end, for we have not mentioned its intentions with respect to that particular suffering one feels in love itself—namely, the privation of the beloved object. As we mentioned above, nothing moves at all except insofar as it suffers the privation of the end that it desires. Is the secular eradication of suffering meant to go this far? And if so, must it not work against itself by eliminating, in the process, the possibility of any human motion, even the most primitive? Such an end is, in fact, impossible, but neither is it desirable, for while even this last suffering is despised, it must be kept alive if there is to be anything left at all of the human being—and, by implication, of other animals and even plants—that can be controlled—and control is what passes for the essential nature of the algorithm once made independent of immediate human guidance. 26 For this reason, then, the social engineers’ 27 desire to control suffering must be greater than their desire to annihilate it. But how can human beings ever be tempted to submit to such a diminution of their natural expansiveness of mind and will? An oft-quoted passage from Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov , in the part known as “The Grand Inquisitor,” may provide a plausible response: “In the end they will lay down their freedom at our feet and say: ‘Make us your slaves, if only you will feed us!’” 28 Accordingly, from Dostoyevsky’s traditionally religious perspective, the failure in the secular plan is not primarily one of reason but of intention; it is a failure of the will as manifest in its potential to love something higher than, and incommensurable with, itself. Most religions hold that we naturally love what is beyond our nature to attain, but they also hold that this love can only be satisfied supernaturally . The testimony of the martyr, as we have seen, is possible only with respect to the second and not to the first end—that is, to our supernatural and not to our natural end. But even so, it must presuppose our desire for the first end, for it is not something added, as if it were an alien influence, but rather something that perfects from within, working with what already is to make something that will be. If there is indeed such desire—and religion has testified to its existence for millennia—it must be directed beyond our human nature, and there must be an intuitive knowledge that our natural end is not our final end. Indeed, because the transcendental end is present seminally in the love we have for it, our work to achieve it will take the form of a return to it. The members of the ecclesia bear witness to each other of that end and the open field of divine life it implies. But at the same time, this gift of love, so long as we remain in our natural state, will always entail the burden of privation. Human community, therefore, must always itself be a burden, but a burden by design.

Beyond the question of whether the power of self-sacrifice, the sheer seminal energy of its eruption into the relative bonds of society, should be allowed to be expressed , there is the more pressing question, given our present circumstances, of whether it can be suppressed —whether, that is, the natural and even supernatural intensity in us can be extinguished or perpetually kept in check, even by a mechanism whose power and extent now encompass the entire world. Perhaps these questions cannot be answered as a practical matter but only as a matter of faith—that is, by an appeal to principle. But there is a practical question that might be answered: Is such a thing being attempted in the present time? 29 If so, then more questions arise, such as, What must we do to stop it? But here we must ask who “we” are, and this leads to more doubts regarding the means—that is, who will take the actions necessary to preserve a humanity the essentials for which we are close to forgetting? These questions can lead to an intolerable vertigo. But if one answers the question of whether the plan is actually happening in the affirmative, then it seems that the only place to look is to a broader plan—namely, the providence of God. It is that plan, after all, that established the twofold end of humanity, and that alone, therefore, can remind us of the great power that is present in every human act of using the means to attain the end. As long as one can still imagine the radical intensity of love and suffering that can be found in self-sacrificial acts of being for the sake of another, then one will always have access to the door that leads out of the prison of mere determinism and brute material causality and toward the wide field of the divine life.

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1 Adam Kirsch, “Looking Forward to the End of Humanity,” Wall Street Journal , June 20, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/looking-forward-to-the-end-of-humanity-11592625661 . In order to stress the public awareness of the information provided in this part of the paper, I have chosen all the quotations from popular online media sources.
2 C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man: How Education Develops Man’s Sense of Morality (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1947), 77.
3 “Transhumanism promises that death can be conquered physically, not just spiritually; and the movement has the support of people with the financial resources to make it happen, if anyone can.” Kirsch, “Looking Forward to the End of Humanity.”
4 Lewis, Abolition of Man , 78: “My point is that those who stand outside all judgements of value cannot have any ground for preferring one of their own impulses to another except the emotional strength of that impulse.” Lewis’s pivotal analysis of humans choosing to be more than human is the key to understanding the paradoxes involved in the motives of “scientific planners,” i.e., scientists and technocrats who, being in positions of great power, seek absolute control over human behavior.
5 Considered from the perspective of the use of algorithms to manipulate human behavior, every online platform is some form of social media platform.
6 Michael Matheson Miller, “Social Media—What a Bummer,” Law and Liberty , October 22, 2018, https://lawliberty.org/social-media-what-a-bummer/ . The article quoted is about Jaron Lanier’s book, Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now .
7 Paul Solman, “Jaron Lanier’s Argument for Getting Off Facebook,” PBS, May 17, 2018, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/jaron-laniers-argument-for-getting-off-facebook .
8 Tom Rassmussen, “When Did Social Media Steal Our Free Will?” i-D, November 30, 2016, https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/8xg54v/when-did-social-media-steal-our-free-will .
9 Wikipedia, s.v. “Social Media and Suicide,” last edited September 27, 2020, 21:24, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide .
10 Miller, “Social Media—What a Bummer.”
11 “[Saul] Smilansky advocates a view he calls illusionism—the belief that free will is indeed an illusion, but one that society must defend. The idea of determinism, and the facts supporting it, must be kept confined within the ivory tower. Only the initiated, behind those walls, should dare to, as he put it to me, ‘look the dark truth in the face.’ Smilansky says he realizes that there is something drastic, even terrible, about this idea—but if the choice is between the true and the good, then for the sake of society, the true must go.” Stephen Cave, “There’s No Such Thing as Free Will. But We’re Better Off Believing in It Anyway,” The Atlantic (June 2016), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-will/480750/.
12 De libero arbitrio , the title of an influential book by Augustine of Hippo.
13 Summa Theologiae , pt. I, question 6, art. 1.
14 “A thing cannot be ordained to any end unless the thing itself is known, together with the end to which it is ordained. Hence, there must be a knowledge of natural things in the divine intellect from which the origin and the order of nature come. The Psalmist suggests this proof when he says: ‘He that formed the eye, doth he not consider?’ (Psalms 93:9); for, as Rabbi Moses [Maimonides] points out, it is as if the Psalmist had said: ‘Does He not consider the nature of the eye—who has made it to be proportioned to its end, which is its act of seeing?’” Aquinas, Disputed Questions on Truth , question 2, art. 3.
15 Respectively, the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.
16 See William Arndt and Felix Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 633.
17 See the first listing for pasco in G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 1049: “A. suffer ; 1. in particular of martyrs.”
18 I do not mean to imply that sacrificial suffering for the sake of God, or even “a god,” originated with Christianity. It is appropriate, nonetheless, to point out the unique meaning that it acquired in light of Christ’s crucifixion and the doctrinal implications over time of the victims of the persecutions in the early church.
19 The soldier does indeed give his life for the sake of his country or community, but though he may be honored once he returns home, his may not be a welcome presence amid the daily affairs of the society for whose good he volunteered to make himself the means. On the contrary, the witness to war that he bears will make him seem a danger to the peaceful order of societal relations that, absorbed as they are with the parts, cannot, as he did, bear the weight of the whole.
20 In classical Greek, the word signified “a regularly summoned political body,” or, in general, an “assemblage, gathering, meeting.” With the advent of Christianity, it had several related meanings, e.g., “The Christian church or congregation,” “the church or congregation as the totality of Christians living in one place,” or the very broad sense that I am suggesting here: “the church universal, to which all believers belong.” Arndt and Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon , 240–241.
21 From the Greek anachoreo (“to withdraw, retire”): “one that renounces the world to live in seclusion usually for religious reasons.” Philip B. Gove, ed., Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam, 1961).
22 See Lewis, Abolition of Man , 42–44, for a penetrating discussion of modern society’s deliberate marginalization of heroic self-sacrifice.
23 “David Pearce, author of The Hedonistic Imperative , suggests that one day the assumption that emotional pain is indispensable may sound just as quaint. He believes that no pain, physical or emotional, is necessary. On the contrary, Pearce argues that we should strive to ‘eradicate suffering in all sentient life’—a project which he describes as ‘technically feasible’ thanks to genetic engineering and nanotechnology, and ‘ethically mandatory’ on utilitarian grounds.” Katherine Power, “The End of Suffering,” Philosophy Now , https://philosophynow.org/issues/56/The_End_of_Suffering . “‘We need,’ [Sam] Harris told me, ‘to know what are the levers we can pull as a society to encourage people to be the best version of themselves they can be.’” Cave, “There’s No Such Thing as Free Will.”
24 Contemporary global governance is organized around an odd pairing: care and control. On the one hand, much of global governance is designed to reduce human suffering and improve human flourishing, with the important caveat that individuals should be allowed to decide for themselves how they want to live their lives. On the other hand, these global practices of care are also entangled with acts of control.... Drawing on our moral intuitions, I argue that paternalism is the attempt by one actor to substitute his judgment for another actor’s on the grounds that such an imposition will improve the welfare of the target actor. After discussing and defending this definition, I note how our unease with paternalism seems to grow as we scale up from the interpersonal to the international, which I argue owes to the evaporation of community and equality. Michael Barnett, “Paternalism and Global Governance,” Abstract, Social Philosophy and Policy 32, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 216–243, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-philosophy-and-policy/article/paternalism-and-global-governance/F68F99C24B88F669D1677C1D267A67FC .
25 Compare the meanings of the Latin root of this word, persequor : to follow constantly, follow after, pursue; to press upon, chase; to pursue hostilely, punish; to prosecute judicially, and so on.
26 Sometimes, early twentieth-century intellectual historians can sum up the modern project more clearly and more powerfully, especially when they were “true believers,” than scholars and scientists writing in the last fifty years. A splendid example was Carl L. Becker, who wrote in The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1965), 16–18. Accepting the fact as given, we observe it, experiment with it, verify it, classify it, measure it if possible, and reason about it as little as may be. The questions we ask are “What?” and “How?” What are the facts and how are they related? If sometimes, in a moment of absent-mindedness or idle diversion, we ask the question “Why?” the answer escapes us. Our supreme object is to measure and master the world rather than to understand it .... Since our supreme object is to measure and master the world, we can make relatively little use of theology, philosophy, and deductive logic—the three stately entrance ways to knowledge erected in the Middle Ages. In the course of eight centuries these disciplines have fallen from their high estate, and in their place we have enthroned history, science, and the technique of observation and measurement.... No respectable historian any longer harbors ulterior motives; and one who should surreptitiously introduce the gloss of a transcendent interpretation into the human story would deserve to be called a philosopher and straightway lose his reputation as a scholar. [Emphasis added]
27 This term continues to be used today to describe a wide range of social and physical scientists. A famous example of its use in the mid-twentieth century is in the following passage from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World Revisited : “‘The challenge of social engineering in our time,’ writes an enthusiastic advocate of this new science, ‘is like the challenge of technical engineering fifty years ago. If the first half of the twentieth century was the era of the technical engineers, the second half may well be the era of the social engineers’—and the twenty-first century, I suppose, will be the era of World Controllers, the scientific caste system and Brave New World.... The future dictator’s subjects will be painlessly regimented by a corps of highly trained social engineers.” Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited (New York: Harper Collins, 1965), 22.
28 See Joseph Pieper’s 1972 discussion of the modern technocratic state and its formidable threat to free societies in his essay, “The Art of Not Yielding to Despair,” in Problems of Modern Faith: Essays and Addresses (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press), 175–191. Besides Dostoyevsky, he quotes other authors who display an astounding prescience in this regard.
29 See Pieper. In 1972, it was admitted openly by scholars across Europe and America.

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Father's Day Essay

Essay on Father's Day

The first superhero any child meets in their life is their father. In the growing age of children, they need someone who can be their role model. Father is the best example of a superhero. A father works tirelessly day and night for his family so that he can educate his children well and support his family. To give respect to this hard work, we celebrate Father's Day every year. On this day, we give respect and gratitude to our father.

If any child is in any trouble, the first person a child remembers is his father. This shows the importance of a father in anyone's life. Father's Day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June every year throughout the world.

The Story behind Father's Day Celebration:

There are two major stories behind celebrating Father's Day.

The first Father's Day was celebrated in America on 19 June 1910 to honor the father of Miss Sonora Smart Dooh. Sanora's father William Smart was a civil war veteran. William Smart's wife died at the time of giving birth to his sixth child. He raised his six children alone after his wife passed away. After William Smart passed away, his daughter Sanora wanted to celebrate Father's Day on June 5, on the death anniversary of her father. She believed that all of us always respect the mother's sacrifices and emotions but no one pays attention to the father's sacrifices. Not everyone understands the importance of a father in life. In order to celebrate the life and sacrifices of a father, we should celebrate Father's Day. On this day, we can tell our father how important he is in our lives. For some reasons, it was postponed to the third Sunday of June.

Origin of Celebration

According to the second story, Father's Day was celebrated for the first time in America in Fairmont, West Virginia. The day was celebrated for the first time on July 5, 1908. It was commemorated in memory of 361 men, who died in 1907 in a coal mine explosion. Father's Day was officially recognized as a national holiday in 1972 during President Nixon's reign. Since then, Father's Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of June.

Father's Day is celebrated on different days in different countries. In countries like India, the United States and the United Kingdom, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. In Argentina, Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and Venezuela, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. Whereas in Australia and New Zealand, Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September. In Thailand, Father's Day is celebrated on 5 December; on this day the birthday of the King of Thailand is also celebrated. In Brazil, Father's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of August.

Modes of Celebration:

Everyone has their way of celebrating Father's Day. Many people go out on this day to eat good food. On this day, children give gifts to their father, offer them greetings, and give them cards and flowers. On this day, every child honors his father and offers gratitude.

Mother’s sacrifice is given a high position in every civilization and culture. However, the person who dedicates his whole life for the happiness of his children and his family should also get the same respect as the mother. The way we celebrate Mother's Day in honor of a Mother, similarly Father's Day is celebrated to honor Father's love.

This day is celebrated to express gratitude to the father. The father is the person who pays all his duty without expressing his grief and pain. After mother, if someone is very close to our heart, it is our father. The father's love does not look like that of the mother, but it is the father who makes us strong from inside. Our father gives us a lesson about good and bad in the world. We do not need to worry about anything as long our father’s hand is on our forehead. They always keep grief to themselves and give us happiness. We should never forget our father's struggles. We should always celebrate the sacrifice of father’s and give them respect.

The main motive of celebrating Father's Day is to remind and give special thanks to every father who has given a lot of dedication to their children. However, in children's lives, Fathers are the real role model for them, they are inspired by their father since childhood. This is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June every year.

Fathers’ Day Essay 800 Words

The only person I always admire in my life is my dad who I love. I still remember all my childhood memories with my dad. They are the real reason for my happiness and happiness. Because of who I was, my mother was always busy with kitchens and other household chores and these ‘dads’ celebrated with me and my sister. I think he is the best father in the world. I feel blessed to have such a father in my life. I always thank God for giving me the opportunity to be born into such a wonderful family.

He is a humble and peaceful person. They never scolded me and took all my mistakes lightly and very politely and made me see all my mistakes. He is the head of the family, and he helps all members of the family through difficult times. They share their mistakes and their successes in life to tell me. He has his own online marketing business, yet he never pressures or pulls him forward in the same field, instead he always encourages me with whatever I want to be in my life. He is a good father not only because he helps me but also because of the knowledge, the power, the helpful environment and especially in treating people fairly.

Father's Day is a day in the year when children give their father presents and gifts and one big thing, which is love. Father's Day is just one day, but what about each day of the year? Fathers' Day should be a daily occurrence because fathers are generous and do much to help their children.

Every father is a constant support system and mentor for their child. He's the one I always look up to when I find myself in trouble. My father has been leading me in all my major decisions in life. He is a hardworking and loving person. Dad loves movies. Whenever he gets time, he likes to watch an old movie. In fact, we are sometimes told who controls the television. But, deep down, we like to tease each other and play again. Dad doesn't like to do anything. Sometimes during the holidays, when he and my sister do nothing and do nothing, he gives us one job or another. And he is very organized and keeps all his papers organized.

My Dad - My Model:

Every father is a good example for his children. First of all, I commend your love of work. He is always there to help his mates, even if it is not his job. In fact, we may find him spending hours helping others. After all, my father is just a man. He does not like expensive things and lives a simple, peaceful life. Otherwise he does not scold anyone. I wonder if something is wrong with her because she takes everything in order and gives herself time to decide.

My father - My Friend:

My father is also my friend. I can talk about everything with my dad, even those who have the courage to talk in front of my mom. I know he should keep it a secret and give me the advice I need. He is the one I can count on not to see whenever I need help, and I know he will help me.

Importance of Father in Family

Father plays a vital role in the development of the family. He is actually considered the head of the family. However, I feel that fathers and mothers have a special role to play in raising their children. Although a mother is gentle, the father shows courage and strength to his children, who will later take him seriously. It may be difficult at times, but be sure to always benefit the children.

My father as a Source of Inspiration

I can proudly say that it was my father who inspired me from day one. In other words, his attitude and personality influenced me as a person. In the same way, he still has a great influence on the environment around his narrow paths. Dad spends his free time caring for the lost animals, which encourages me to do the same. All my knowledge in sports or cars comes from my father.

Conclusion:

There is no doubt that my father's role is important in my life. Your presence is important in maintaining equality and peace in my family. The father is the one who gets the bad daddy's badge and his denial of anything means a lot to the kids. I also respect my father and try to develop the qualities needed to be like him when I grow up.

FAQs on Father's Day Essay

1. Why is Father's Day Celebrated?

Usually, we are not able to express our love for our father openly, but when a special day is fixed, we get the feeling of expressing ourselves to people. In view of this, we celebrate Father's Day. On this day, we can easily communicate our feelings in front of our father and can make this day dedicated to them. We can make this day memorable by making them feel good and giving them respect.

2. How Do We Celebrate Father's Day?

Everyone has their way of celebrating Father's Day. Many people go out on this day to eat good food. On this day, every child gives gifts to their father, gives them cards and flowers, etc. Some write speeches, some write poems and essays for fathers so that they can tell them the importance of the father in their life. On this day, every child honors his father and gives him respect and gratitude.

3. What are the Two Major Stories Behind Celebrating Father's Day

The two major stories behind celebrating father’s day are

In the first story, for the first time in America on 19 June 1910, Father's Day was celebrated to honour the father of Miss Sonora Smart Dooh. Sanora's father William Smart was a civil war veteran. William Smart's wife died at the time of giving birth to his sixth child. He alone raised his six children after his wife passed away. After William Smart passed away, his daughter Sanora wanted to celebrate Father's Day on June 5.

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57 Father Sacrifice Quotes and Captions: Respect Your Dad

Read the collection of some 57 Father Sacrifice Quotes and Captions and we are thankful that you are reading this blog post. Bookmark this page/website so you can read more quotes and captions from us. Love and peace for all and we are actively uploading best quotes content for you guys and we need your love and support.

57 Father Sacrifice Quotes and Captions

A father gives up his time to create lasting memories.

A father’s love shines brighter with each sacrifice.

Dads give up sleep to ensure their children’s dreams come true.

A father gives up his desires to meet the needs of his child.

A father’s love speaks volumes in the silence of sacrifice.

A father gives up his desires to meet the needs of his family.

The sacrifice of a father is the foundation of a family’s strength.

Dads make sacrifices today for their children’s better future.

A father gives up personal space to embrace his family.

Love of Dads Quotes and Captions

Every sacrifice a father makes contributes to his child’s happiness.

A father gives up personal ambitions to support his family’s goals.

Dads give up their comfort to keep their family warm.

A father’s sacrifice is the melody that plays in the heart of a family.

A father neglects personal time in order to invest in his children’s future.

Fathers are the unsung heroes in the world of sacrifice.

A father neglects luxuries to provide for his family’s needs.

Dads sacrifice quietly, but their love is audible.

The sacrifice of a father is the compass that guides a family’s journey.

Every sacrifice a father makes is a love letter to his family.

A father puts his personal preferences aside for the sake of his family’s harmony.

A father foregoes personal success in order to provide for his family’s well-being.

Dads give up their ego for the sake of their children.

A father’s sacrifice is the crowning achievement of a family portrait.

A father’s sacrifice paints a beautiful picture on the canvas of life.

A father skips personal convenience for the sake of his family’s convenience.

Father Sacrifice Quotes and Captions

A father ignores moments of solitude in exchange for a lifetime of togetherness.

Dads give up selfishness in order to be selfless for their families.

A father’s chapter in the book of sacrifice is filled with love.

A father neglects personal goals in order to ensure the success of his family as a whole.

A father’s sacrifice connects the past to the future.

A father gives up personal freedom for the sake of his family’s security.

Every sacrifice a father makes sows the seeds of love that will grow into a family tree.

Dads give up personal pride for the happiness of their children.

The sacrifice of a father is the foundation of a family’s legacy.

A father neglects personal comfort for the sake of his family’s happiness.

Fathers speak love fluently in the language of sacrifice.

A father avoids his desires in order to fulfill the desires of his children.

A father’s sacrifice is the lifeblood that keeps a family going.

A father avoids personal accomplishments to ensure the success of his family.

Every sacrifice a father makes shapes the clay of his family’s future.

Dads forego personal preferences in order to create a family symphony.

The sacrifice of a father is the compass that guides his children through life’s journey.

A father rejects personal desires in order to fulfill the dreams of his family.

Fathers weave threads of love into the tapestry of sacrifice.

A father ignores personal time to invest in his children’s development.

Dads give up personal comfort for the sake of their family’s happiness.

The sacrifice of a father is the lighthouse that guides his family through storms.

A father ignores personal accomplishments for the sake of his family’s well-being.

Every sacrifice a father makes sows the seeds of resilience in his children.

A father neglects personal space in order to create a family sanctuary.

The melody that plays in the background of family moments is a father’s sacrifice.

A father ignores personal plans to ensure the happiness of his family’s future.

A father’s portrait is lovingly painted in the gallery of sacrifice.

A father rejects personal preferences in order to respect his family’s decisions.

Dads sacrifice personal accomplishments for the success of their children.

The sacrifice of a father is the anchor that keeps a family grounded.

A father sacrifices personal desires to ensure the happiness of his family.

Also Read: 57 Absent Father Quotes and Captions to Value You Dad

Sacrifices Of Father To Their Children Essay PDF Free Download

Sacrifices Of Father To Their Children: He works hard but he was smiling,

He Work Day and night,

without letting his children knew.

He was there always with you in your every emotion.

He Makes many sacrifices for you every time.

He is nothing but your Father…Hence try to respect his attitude and sacrifices for you.

If we talked about sacrifices many people are saying that they sacrifice this and that for someone.

And as result they got nothing. But the only person who doesn’t say that although he sacrifices his whole life for his children is his father.

Have you seen your father saying that I have sacrificed my life for you you have to now pay back to me? No father in the world does that.

Instead, they sacrifice a lot more than what they show us or what we perceive to be true outside.

When you were born and of some months our father and mother both have to sacrifice their daily sleep to make you smile and stop you from crying.

They make a double shift and work hard for your education and everything. Their sacrifice is priceless hence no people can say that they haven’t seen their father’s sacrifices.

It is always their only thing many children unable to recognize.

Fathers are a strength to a daughter and an inspiration for a son. They are the one who gives their family strength and security of living a good and happy life.

Many fathers are sacrificing their many things. But in return, they are not getting even a fraction of love and they were then sent to the old age home.

This is what they have been working so hard for you.

The father always sees their son or daughter growing. And wants to see them in a better position in life no matter what sacrifices he will have to bear to complete their education and basic stuff.

A father although is not keeping you 9 months in their womb. But, he is giving you that security when you come out of that for your entire life.

That sacrifice nowadays children’s are getting forget, what their fathers have done for them. Or are working to make your life better. “Father” a word in itself has a great value that’s why every country says they have “father of the nation” or father of sociology and all.

The value is always there from ancient times.

The only thing now in the 21st century that has changed is their presence. We in this busy life have forgotten to appreciate the good and hard work done by our parents.

Be it, father or mother, for ourselves, and instead, we start arguing for ourselves with them. Many children now even come to a stage where they yell and fight.

Also, this is the worst case we are doing to our fathers and family. Remember when nobody was there for you they were there for you.

Hence have their value and respect them and hence spread the positivity and take out some time for them as well. Remember “You are there because your father was behind you”.

Hence keep doing right and positive things and appreciated the hard work of your father.

Happy Fathers Day to all… Enjoy

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