As we... symbolically sacrifice our hearts and our sins upon the sacrament altar, we receive the Holy Ghost to a greater degree...
"We could... bring a sacrifice of at least one thing that keeps us from being like Jesus Christ to the sacrament altar."
I love this reminder of how to make the weekly partaking of the sacrament--which can easily become routine-- into a transformative event. Such purposeful approach to the sacrament table has brought powerful joy and peace to me. This hasn't always been the case, though. It has definitely been a process, starting with the following experience.
Several years ago I came across a quote from Pres. Faust that went something along the lines of--if we truly understood the significance of the sacrament, we would literally crawl on hands and knees to the sacrament table each week. While I thought it was a cool quote, it just kind of lingered in my head as I weekly went to my Utah wards.
In 2012 our family moved overseas to live in Hungary. We had 10 children at the time and relied exclusively upon public transportation. We ended up living in a village that required us to leave at 730 am, catch a bus going into Budapest, dash across the overpass of an 8-lane freeway to catch a bus leaving from Budapest to make it to our branch house in Érd by 10 am. We knew it was where the Lord wanted us so we did it.
Well, one week my husband was visiting his parents, who were on their mission in Norway. He was the sole Hungarian speaker in our family and had always handled our bus transactions. My oldest was 16, my youngest 5 months and I had a decision to make. Pres. Faust's quote came to my mind and I thought, "Well, I am not crawling yet so where's my excuse?"
We went and we made it. I remember the Branch being pleasantly surprised and confused when I showed up without my husband. A few weeks later one of the members was at our home. He was one of the two people in the branch who spoke broken English enough for us to communicate. "Why did you come to church that week?" he asked. I could tell it had been on his mind. The quote again came to mind and I shared it. The Spirit witnessed of its truthfulness.
Interestingly enough, I still didn't experience why...why we should treat the partaking of the sacrament in such a life-saving way. It has only been now, seven years later of faithfully "crawling" some days to church, that I am deeply experiencing how redemptively beautiful the Sacrament can be for me in my progression. It has become that "crawl-worthy" event after years of truly just acting on faith, a sacred time to become cleansed and refocused.
