Day: January 9, 2016

• : the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone

•    destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else

• :  something given up or lost <the sacrifices made by parents>

Hebrews 13:16

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

So I started looking at my life and searching for areas where I could make some sacrifices for the betterment of my family.  I looked at finances, family, work, and other areas of my life and made a list of sacrifices.

1.  Would give up on always trying to prove I was right when having a disagreement with my wife and stepkids.  Sometimes keeping the peace is is better than having an argument over something stupid just to prove that you are right.  In the end nobody wins.
2. Sacrifice having the newest running shoes or running gear, or more F3 shirts, etc. so I can pay off all of my credit card debt by the end of the year (hold me to this guys #accountability)
3. Giving up what I want to do everyday after work, so I can spend more quality time with my family and actually plan things to do with the family.
4. Sacrifice my wants to line up with what God wants of me.

So this morning before the Joe Davis Memorial Run, I saw Santini and told him word.  His response “that’s a dangerous a word.”  It is a dangerous word, but a word I know that will challenge me throughout the year.  I didn’t know at the time what this word would truly mean, until about 45 minutes later and 1.25 miles into Joe Davis 10k.  At that point, my arrhythmia started to flare up.  I made the decision to stop running and DNF the race (I know not very F3 like to quit). But I could tell even before the race that something wasn’t right.  F3 brother after F3 brother slowed down as they passed me to ask if I was okay.  Told them to continue on (as I know how hard most of them trained for this race).  As I was coming up one of the hills to walk back to WEP, I saw Double D come back to get me.  No man left behind was his response.  In short, he sacrificed his time (which I know was going to be pretty good), to make sure that I got back to WEP and that I was medically taken care of.  It hammered home a point to me that Sacrifice goes 2 ways.  We often think about what we must give up and seldom realize what others give up for us.  It really hammered home that my word for the year is two fold.  Not only to recognize what I need to give up but what others have given up for me, with the ultimate sacrifice being Jesus laying down his life for the forgiveness of not only my sins but all of yours as well.