Sacrifice

1 John 4: 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

I live a life without to live a life with. Doesn’t make sense does it?

This is what is on my heart today:

Mark 8: Mark 8: 34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
[35] For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
[36] For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
[37] Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
[38] Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

I grew up in a household with five older siblings. They all had wants and needs and most of them TOOK what they wanted and needed. I learned from them. I stole, I drank, I lied, I hated. I was a normal child right? Wrong. And to think I was being raised Catholic, and you wonder why I’m not Catholic now?

I respect the Catholic religion but I lose respect for people who ABUSE that religion or any religion for that matter. I’ve seen many ‘Christians’ abuse the faith too, so I’m NOT pointing fingers here. Speaking from experience, MY experience, I’ve lost all respect for my family. There are things I’ve forgiven over and over and over again, only for them to continue to be the hypocrites they are. It truly hurts.

When I chose to convert from being a Catholic to a Christian, I knew I was different than them. Not BETTER than, just different than. They knew it too and I feel THAT is the reason I’ve been shunned half of my life.

Sacrifice. Sometimes you have to give up things in order to get the real things out of life. Yesterday’s post was about values. Sacrifice, I believe, is a part of the vitality that carries values and morals the full length. I also believe a nation without God is a faltering nation.

Imagine a young girl, say sixteen or seventeen, sacrificing the pleasure of attention from a guy, feeling so self–assured, and waiting to have sex and a baby. Because we all know teen pregnancy is out of control. The majority of these teens were born out of a teen pregnancy.

The mother feels trapped; they let grandparents, the school system, and any other person raise their kids while they go on drugging, working, ignoring the child that they bore. Then when the child grows, gets into trouble, she washes her hands of them, or worse becomes a grandmother having to raise her child’s child! She didn’t do any good at raising HER child as a teen, what makes her think she can do better at raising a grandchild?

Sacrifice. Sometimes a girl needs her confidence in herself so she DOESN’T need the attention of a man/boy. As you know, to boys, girls are what THEY need to conquer the world. Waiting to have sex is NOT an option and they take the first easy, low self-esteem girl they see, and ruins her life by making her feel that sex is the answer to both of their insecurities!

You might be saying, “What does she know?” I’ll tell you! I was one of those low self- esteem girls pregnant at sixteen! Go ahead, point fingers. Remember, I was raised in an alcoholic drug infested household where the Catholic religion was being abused. Granted my mother and father have been married sixty years now, their children, not ALL have never gotten out of the destruction alcohol causes.

Me? I married the first boy who touched me and got me pregnant. We stayed married for twenty years. I felt I owed it to God to sacrifice my entire life to Him so I stayed married, until God said it was time to move on. After cleaning myself up and dedicating my life to God, life took on a whole new meaning. (I had no one but GOD guiding me.)

I wonder if someone can reach out to these girls at a ripe young age and help them to see their inner beauty. We have too much evil crawling the streets so getting to reach these kids is harder than it sounds. Boys need to see their worthiness too! Girls are NOT just sex toys and boys are NOT just sex machines.

No one is willing to sacrifice these days. Their cable television is more important than their car. Their fast food is more important than a family-eating together-at home-meal. Their clothes are more important than their electric bill. You see what I’m saying here? If adults are struggling with the simple sacrifices, how are we to expect our children to learn from us? How is this teaching them responsibility?

Have you ever tried walking into the Goodwill and buying clothes? To proud? What? Do you think people are going to look at your butt and say, Goodwill, pass. Are you really THAT self righteous that you can’t sacrifice $20 jeans for a $6 pair of name brand jeans?

Really? Let go of that pride and ego and you might find that extra money you need every month to pay bills.

Spend time with the kids, play Frisbee, horseshoes, catch or take nature walks. By SACRIFICING small things you will unknowingly be bringing God into your life. If you already HAVE God in your life, you should already understand this.

Life is not about having it all, that’s greed. Life is not about going out and taking anything you can’t have, that’s selfishness. Life is not about killing one thing to get another, that’s anger, greed AND selfishness. Life is about LOVE and wrapping it up in your heart to share it with others. Life is about sacrifice and when you can’t sacrifice, you won’t know the blessings God has in store for you. You’ll never taste the fruit you so richly deserve and are freely given.

I live a life without to live a life with. Makes more sense now, doesn’t it?

Mark 10:19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
[20] And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
[21] Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.