The Rewards of Sacrifice

Sacrifice--The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable fore the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.

I've never really considered the word sacrifice much until just recently. Who knows why, the strangest things just pop into my head and jotting them down (or blogging) seems to be the only way to get them out. Having grown up in church and being saved since I was 10, I don't have a lot of "wild" times behind me. I remember growing up and sitting through testimony service (which sometimes seemed to last for hours on end), I would hear people say how God rescued them from the miry clay and set their feet on solid ground. I always thought "Wow!! One of the worst things I had done was steal a diaper from my Aunt Sue for my baby doll.... Sorry Aunt Sue, I'm coming clean. But as an adult I have become painfully aware of the sacrifices required for living a Christ centered life. I haven't had to sacrifice my wild lifestyle but I have had to sacrifice my pride to come humbly before the cross and confess my sins. I've had to sacrifice desires that would undermine my spiritual walk or the walk of others. I've  sacrificed my time to ministry. I'm required to lay aside offenses that come my way, to forgive when forgiveness isn't what I want to do and to love my enemy or a better term would be to love someone I don't particularly "click" with. There is a lot of things that can be a "miry clay" for anyone who is trying to live a life that glorifies Christ. Sometimes I forget that it isn't necessarily the big things that are the problem, but a multitude of little things that can leave us in a shattered mess. I'll admit, some of these sacrifices may seems small at first glance, but getting  rid of them feels like ripping a hole in my chest because they have become so ingrained into my flesh that it's painful! Yes, being everything God created me to be is definitely a work in progress, but without a doubt the rewards will forever out weigh the sacrifices.... Regardless of how big, small, or painful they may seem.