Sacrifice.
Today's Word of the Day is actually rather subtle, despite the huge connotations implied by the word. I should probably first make you aware that I am discussing the verb and not the noun; homage through death is just not my thing. So, what is sacrifice? To make an offering of; to surrender, give up, permit injury or disadvantage to for the sake of something else; to dispose of something of value (property, goods, etc.) regardless of profit. Sounds big and important.
We are "house sitting" at my parents' this week while they are in Eugene for a blues/folk festival and then in Lincoln City for a family reunion. They got to see Steve Martin, I'm eternally green with envy. The house doesn't really need sitting, but my youngest brother is still living at home and while he doesn't need anyone to watch him, he does need accountability. So it helps if we stay at the house. I love my brother and I am more than happy to be there for him, but I do not want to stay at my parents' house. It doesn't even have anything to do with the house or the responsibility, it is entirely because it's not my home anymore. I have a new home that I love and I want to be there. Vacation's are different. Living in someone else's house while you're going about your normal everyday life? I don't like it, not even a little bit.
But sacrifice, even small and insignificant ones like living at your parents' house for a week, is important. Not just that you make them, but that you make them cheerfully. And making a cheerful sacrifice does not always mean you are going to like the sacrifice you are making, it simply means that you recognize it needs to be made and you let your heart be transformed by that knowledge. Let yourself be transformed. Sleeping in a bed that is not my own in a house that is not my own while in my last leg of pregnancy is not my idea of fun, but I am glad of this opportunity to give more of myself so that others (my parents and brother) might feel love and be appreciated. I think in order for a sacrifice to be genuine, part of you has to want to hold back but decide for the best of others to give anyway.
Real sacrifice is beautiful. It's not just reluctant house sitting for your parents, it's lovely and true. It breaks down barriers and builds up people. It is hope. It is love, unconditional and never ceasing. Joyfully surrendered for the greater good. It's not something that you can teach or force of someone, it must be done by your own free and wholehearted will. Sacrifice. It is a word with weight, so much weight. And it is so important.
I believe that sacrifice is necessary. I believe this because I have experienced the blessings from the ultimate sacrifice and I am undeserving. I believe this because I have witness the sacrifices of others for the benefit of those around them. I have seen great sacrifice and great suffering and I believe it is necessary. For through these acts of unconditional and unrequited goodness, we find joy and hope and love. We find all things beautiful and lovely. All things wonderful and fulfilling.
I believe in order to be a good wife, I must know and experience sacrifice. Expectantly. I must yield all I am and more, not losing myself in my husband, but giving all of myself. Without reservation. For reservation negates sacrifice. If true love is to be my calling, it must be sacrificial love. And I believe in order to be a good parent, I must know sacrifice. I must know great sacrifice. I must love my child(ren) until it hurts and be willing to give my everything for them. They are, after all, my heart wandering beyond my body.
"A man (Jesus) who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act." Mahatma Gandhi
"No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice." CS Lewis
But sacrifice, even small and insignificant ones like living at your parents' house for a week, is important. Not just that you make them, but that you make them cheerfully. And making a cheerful sacrifice does not always mean you are going to like the sacrifice you are making, it simply means that you recognize it needs to be made and you let your heart be transformed by that knowledge. Let yourself be transformed. Sleeping in a bed that is not my own in a house that is not my own while in my last leg of pregnancy is not my idea of fun, but I am glad of this opportunity to give more of myself so that others (my parents and brother) might feel love and be appreciated. I think in order for a sacrifice to be genuine, part of you has to want to hold back but decide for the best of others to give anyway.
Real sacrifice is beautiful. It's not just reluctant house sitting for your parents, it's lovely and true. It breaks down barriers and builds up people. It is hope. It is love, unconditional and never ceasing. Joyfully surrendered for the greater good. It's not something that you can teach or force of someone, it must be done by your own free and wholehearted will. Sacrifice. It is a word with weight, so much weight. And it is so important.
"You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it." JM Barrie
I believe that sacrifice is necessary. I believe this because I have experienced the blessings from the ultimate sacrifice and I am undeserving. I believe this because I have witness the sacrifices of others for the benefit of those around them. I have seen great sacrifice and great suffering and I believe it is necessary. For through these acts of unconditional and unrequited goodness, we find joy and hope and love. We find all things beautiful and lovely. All things wonderful and fulfilling.
I believe in order to be a good wife, I must know and experience sacrifice. Expectantly. I must yield all I am and more, not losing myself in my husband, but giving all of myself. Without reservation. For reservation negates sacrifice. If true love is to be my calling, it must be sacrificial love. And I believe in order to be a good parent, I must know sacrifice. I must know great sacrifice. I must love my child(ren) until it hurts and be willing to give my everything for them. They are, after all, my heart wandering beyond my body.
"A man (Jesus) who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act." Mahatma Gandhi
Reading and writing, allowing God to speak truth into my life through His Word, my husband, my family, my friends, and all other things. I sometimes forget to listen for that still, small voice because I am waiting for a loud, commanding one. I hear the "sacrifice" and it resounds in my mind with a boisterous crash, but it shouldn't. It should be soft, it should be quiet. I am so sure that quiescent words are the most resilient, the most pure. The kind that echo not due to volume but due to their undeniable and heavy truth.
My word is sacrifice. But it isn't just the word of the day, it is the word of my life. It is what I must live out in order to truly live at all, because merely existing was never an option. I desire to love this world as I have first been loved. I desire to love sacrificially, to live sacrificially. I believe it is an impossibly wonderful task that I will spend the rest of my life working towards, and I am so glad of it. To live for the joy, for the sake of something else, what better life could there be?
I am a wife and a mother and I desire a life of beautiful sacrifice.
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