The older I get the more I realize that sacrifices will have to be made. They are inevitable. There is no way around them. There is no way to beat them or outsmart them. In my life, sacrifices carry the same weight as deciding that being silent is my superpower. Sacrifices come in all different shapes and sizes. They involve family, friends, feelings, money, dreams, and materialistic things. Some are harder than others to stomach, but they are all important in their own right. But how do you make sacrifices without having huge regrets that haunt you for the rest of your life? How do you decide what’s best for you regardless of what you have to give up to get it? What if the things you are sacrificing are the very things that were promised to you by God? I have a set of questions I ask myself every time I make a sacrifice. They always give me clarity and bring me peace, hopefully, they will do the same for you.
WHO AM I? I’ve had to sacrifice in every area of my life. They never get easier but they are beginning to be more beneficial. Understanding who I am and my purpose is helping to make what would be hard decisions, not so hard. The hard part is being honest with myself. I have sacrificed opportunities to make great money because it didn’t align with the vision God gave me. Honestly, anything dealing with making money I would have sacrificed everything for because who the hell doesn’t need more money but it always ends the same for me, someone else deciding my every move and how my talent is best utilized to further their purpose…I just can’t do it. Deciding who you are and standing on it is hard as hell, but it’s worth the sacrifice for me. Is it for you?
DO I NEED THIS ISH? Wanting and needing something are two totally different things. I want a whole lot of shit. I mean that’s having the American dream, right? Why shouldn’t I be able to live the life everyone on social media is portraying to live? I want to stunt too! But, thank God for Jay-Z because he taught me what you eat don’t make me shit and I have to remind myself of this truth daily. I’m learning what my needs are. I don’t have many but the ones I have are so fulfilling and give me so much peace. I need to make God smile. I need to wake up every morning and look in my husband’s face. I need to see my children grow and find their purpose for being on this earth. I need my family and my friends. I need to write, educate and empower women. I need wine and The Golden Girls. What if you never get what you wanted again and could only make it on your needs, would you survive?
NOW & LATER Most people will never let go of their comfort of having a steady paycheck, being alone, never saying NO, or doing what family and friends think is best. Real sacrifice requires you to get out of your comfort zone. It requires you to sacrifice your pride and develop character and patience. It requires trusting the process of now and later. You may have to sacrifice or let it go now, but it will be greater later. You may lose something because of poor choices or bad investments, but it will be greater later. You may have to sacrifice going on trips with friends or sacrifice loneliness for peace, but it will be greater later. In the words of Dave Ramsey: “Live like no one else now, so later you can live like no one else.” If the sacrifices you are making now will not help to change your life later, it shouldn’t be a problem to sacrifice it. So what’s the sacrifice?
-HerStory