“Your not going to see the “blessing” until you have made the sacrifice”
( Ether 12:6 ; 1 Peter 1:7 )
The word “blessing” can be replaced with many other words that apply in the given situation. Such are the words as “worth”, “value”, “purpose”, “direction”, “reason”, and so forth, but the word blessing has a universal meaning that encompasses all of these. It is a statement of a spiritual truth, one of spirit and of life, that only through our trials and tribulations, until we have passed through it, have made the sacrifice, retained the faith (which is what sacrifice is about), we will not see and not receive the blessings.
This applies to everything in life.
A person will not see the worth of something until they have made the effort, the sacrifice of their time and resource. This is exactly what giving of ourselves is about and how it works. A person will not see the value of helping those in need “until” they have made the sacrifice of their time and resource to do so. They may try to sit and make arm chair judgements or interpretations of it, have their beliefs about it, but until they have committed their time, effort and resource to that thing, they will not see the actual and true value until they do.
One day you are doing something that you know is not right, but you have a strong desire to do it. As you do this thing, you “feel” in the chest area a lowering of sorts, a diminishing as if things are being lowered within you. This is compared to the “good” feeling you had in general, when having kept the commandments and you were obedient. It is that good feeling that is lowered and heads downward. Despite what you feel, you continue with the thing you desired and soon, the higher feeling of goodness no longer resides in you. Depending on how long you continue, you feel more worldly or “darkened” and a kind of “lost” feeling begins to take place within you. 
