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Sacrifice. God loves us so much that He sacrificed His Son on the cross for us. Jesus sacrificed His own flesh so that we might live in eternity with Him. We know we are supposed to love others as Christ loves us, but how do we apply this sacrificial love to those around us, particularly our children?
For me, I have to be willing to sacrifice my time. My personal, this-is-what-I-want-to-do time. What is it that you want to do? In reality, the “what” doesn’t matter so much, it’s the desire that goes along with it. My desire, my plan, my expectation for how my day is going to go. (Notice all the “my” statements!)
I came face to face with this today when my daughter came out of her room early during naptime. I was happily doing what I wanted to do, and instead she wanted me to color with her. My first response was … ok babe, why don’t you bring your paper over here and color next to me? (While I keep working on this.) Thankfully, she wasn’t content with that answer, and I quickly realized that this was one of those moments. A chance for me to offer up my time, my own fleshly desires, as a sacrifice to the Lord … and as a blessing to my daughter.
You can probably guess what happened! God totally blessed our time together. While my other children were sleeping, we colored together, side by side, and she loved it. It’s something that I’m realizing is very important to my daughter, and I am so thankful to the Lord for giving me the chance to spend that special time with her today!
Do you struggle with sacrifice?
In what ways have you been able to show sacrificial love for your family lately?
Thanks for the great topic! I struggle with my attitude when I DO something that I think is sacrificial...and nobody seems to notice. But then, getting applause for something that my family and God call me to do (normally as part of my "mom" job description) would completely negate the sacrificial aspect, wouldn't it? I am learning, though, that more than the big chores that are frankly not all that fun but still necessary, it's the little choices like choosing to turn off the radio and sing songs with my daughter in the car this morning that pay such huge dividends in joy. And that motivates me to take care of the other things with a better attitude...at least in theory:)
ReplyDeleteGod is so gracious to continue to give us opportunities to "choose" rightly! The day after I wrote this, I had another similar moment and had to sacrifice my flesh once again. I think the accountability of saying it out loud helped a little bit, too. I knew exactly what I needed to do!
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