To Sacrifice

Alright, here's your warning.... there are some things in life that I get passionate about... maybe too passionate. There are things I get on a soap box about and make no apologies in doing such. That's not to say that I've never spoken too soon and had to re-evaluate. Trust me... I've definitely crammed my foot in my mouth a time or two. At any rate, my post today is regarding a phrase I've heard a lot over the last month or two. Honestly I've been hearing it a lot longer but recently it's become more vocalized, or maybe I'm just more sensitive to it, or maybe it's just that my convictions are stronger in certain areas lately as I feel the Lord working on me.

What phrase am I referring to? This: Sometimes you have to give up stuff now for better stuff later. Or, Making a sacrifice now for better things to come. Or, I'm making sacrifices now so I don't have to later. Or, I'm making sacrifices now so I don't have to tell my family no later... variations of this phrase have been floating around, I'm sure for some time... longer than I've noticed. But for some reason it really has me reeling.... At what expense? What sacrifice is being made and who is being affected? Over the weekend I heard someone say, "It really impressed [Jane] that [Natalie] left her son's baseball game to review this business opportunity with her." I'm sorry but was that necessary? Yes I understand some of you are thinking, you don't have kids, you don't have any room to talk. You're right I don't have kids, but I can't imagine doing that to a child. How does the child feel about their parent missing their game? Is that "business opportunity" worth missing your son or daughter's first home run? And yes I understand things happen, there are circumstances that come up in life where you might have to miss something, and it's out of your control. But when you do have control, when you do have a choice......

I see families saying that it's ok to miss things, or ok to "sacrifice" their time away from their kids or spouses so that in the future they won't have to say no, they can give their kids everything  they need/want. This seems counter intuitive to me. It seems that in SOME cases, working with this mindset puts things off to the point that by the time you are around for your child or spouse, it might be too late. It seems to me that this "sacrifice" sometimes leads to other problems in the home. I have spoken with teenagers and Nannies recently who both see and experience the effects of parents who are working toward a "better future". The teen who's parents aren't ever home, stating they're doing it FOR him. The nanny who says she's dealing with defiant kids because the parents are never around. They're too busy making the best future possible for their kids so in a few years they can retire early and be able to spend all of their time with their kids, traveling etc. Is it worth all of that? Is missing the important stuff now, even if it's small worth losing a lot more later? The kids' respect, a relationship with them.... ?

I'm by no means saying people should quit their jobs and solely focus on their kids. What I am saying is find BALANCE. Even those of us without kids, or grown kids need to find balance. Making "sacrifices" thinking that we're doing ourselves a favor for later is, in my opinion, only setting up a bigger problem later. You may very well make these sacrifices now and in a few years be able to provide everything your family could ever want, but will they appreciate it? Or will they be so hurt that you missed all the stuff in between that now it doesn't matter? Again I don't have kids, but I've been evaluating what I'm doing with my time as well. Who I'm spending time with. What my priorities are. Am I investing in others? Am I spending time first with the Lord to see where HE wants my time, money, and energy to go? Am I letting myself get enveloped with work to the point that I don't have a life? Is my sacrifice earthly or for the Kingdom? What matters in the end is not how much stuff we have or what cool vacations we get to go on. It's who we showed grace. Who we loved into the Kingdom. (no I'm not saying vacations aren't of God or that they're bad) I'm really praying that people will be enlightened. That they'll broaden their perspectives. That the Lord will create Kingdom minded people. Let's ask Him to show us what matters. Let's ask Him to show us where to put our time and energy. Let's be open to rearranging our schedules. Let's SACRIFICE our ideals, our theories, our agendas. I challenge you this week to lay your sacrifice on the altar and let the Lord take over.