Sacrifice Brings forth the Blessings of Heaven

As 2015 starts I have, as in years past, created a vision statement for my year. You can look back here to see 2012, here for 2013, and here for 2014.

I just looked through those statements. I see that I had tremendous growth in my personal approach to life in 2012. That was when I gave up having to control everything, let go of worrying about achieving perfection in everything, and pretty much quit worrying over what others might think of my efforts.

2013 included a complete shift in my attitude toward exercise and my desire to do it. I stopped fighting it. I started doing it, and now that is a habit, a pursuit I enjoy doing 3-6 times a week. In some ways it was a big change. In others, it was just a simple choice followed by a year long daily slog through the things that would have held me back. Because I had loosened the tight hold on other things, I was able to pick up this opportunity to control something about myself and move it along.

In 2014 I just tried to stand strong because lots of change outside of me occurred. I did lots of things, some of them really difficult. I did them nearly everyday because that is what the year required. I did new things like help launch a child into the world, like literally into the scary world in a dangerous place where anarchy and war are not that distant. The child is in Guatemala working to bring himself into submission to the will of the Lord and attempting to teach others the blessings of sacrificing an old way of life, or set of traditions, for a better way of hope and growth.

When I first considered my "mantras" for the last two years, I felt at first like I had not done much. Not like 2012 which saw me totally changing a part of who I have been for 45 years, ie. a worrywart. But as I have written this, I see that the last two years have been hard and they have included lots of change. What stayed constant was my peaceful approach to life that God blessed me to see the need to achieve in 2012. Instead of fighting the change and trying to control it but being battered and tossed in the process, I have been riding on the change like a surfer rides a wave. It is a much more fulfilling way to progress.

What I now see is that over the past two years, I have maintained that ability to be at peace and accepting of what comes. I have maintained that new habit until it has become a part of me.

So when I look inside, ponder, and pray for guidance on where I should focus, I keep getting the word sacrifice. I think I know what that means. I think it is time to change myself again. It is time to sacrifice my will and some of my comfort in order grow and become a better me. A person more in touch with myself, my significant people, and my God.

We each have the right to make choices. It is our birthright.

Choosing to sacrifice is difficult. It goes against lazy. It often negates comfort and ease. But choosing not to sacrifice is still a choice.

Choosing not to sacrifice leaves me fighting to either stay somewhere that I don't belong or stagnating and slipping backward into less than I want to be. And ending up bruised and battered in the fight.

Choosing to sacrifice parts of myself that are holding me back will lead to growth and becoming more than I currently am. If I do it with the guidance of the Spirit, it will lead me to becoming more than I can imagine. It will take me to what God wants me to become, which is really the heart of sacrifice, forgoing my will in favor of the will of the Father.

So this year's theme is SACRIFICE, GROW, BECOME.

And I know that at least part of that sacrifice involves the goals I set in 2012, but didn't achieve. I am kind of excited about it. I have a plan. And I think I have better tools than I did then. We will see.