Are you making a sacrifice?Written by Debbie O'Meara
When I was a university student, an ice cream-loving friend of mine gave up ice cream for Lent. It became a joke among all of us as we watched him suffer through keeping his promise, and almost a party when we brought him three gallons of butter pecan just after midnight Easter morning! We often talk about Lent as a time of sacrifice. Of sacrifice Christ made for us. And sacrifices we should make. The idea of “sacrifice” isn’t a pretty one—it’s a painful one! But it implies temporary pain for future gain. In our study of creating greater abundance, what do we have to sacrifice? We have to give up our old ways of thinking. That’s not easy, even if those old ways are hurting us. Old habits are comfortable. They’re familiar. We carry out habit, we know what’s going to happen. And it may not even be pleasant, but it’s predictable. What happens if we break habit? That’s problem…we don’t know what will happen, do we? In our case, we’re sacrificing way we think about: Money. If we think that “money is root of all evil,” how well are we going to attract it? If we think that rich people are somehow bad, are likely is it that we’ll become one? Sure, there are rich people with bad attitudes. There are those who got there on backs of others. There are those who take their financial success as a sign of superiority. But we know it doesn’t have to be that way. Life. Why are we here? If we think we’re here to suffer, it’s reasonable to believe that Universe will be kind enough to comply. I’m not sure who first wrote this poem, but I’m taking it from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich:
| | Is wealth for me?Written by Debbie O'Meara
Have you ever believed that success was for other people? I know I have. It’s an easy trap to get into. We study hard in school, get good jobs, play by rules, but at some point we get stuck. So we look around and decide that things aren’t so bad, really. The kids have a roof over their heads and we’re not missing any meals…what more do we have a right to ask for? And besides, look at those poor unfortunates who have nothing. Shouldn’t we just be grateful for what we have? In other words, we settle. Yes, of course we should be grateful for what we have (gratitude is another topic all by itself!) But who says we can’t be grateful while at same time striving for greater heights? None of us was born to mediocrity. A Universal Mind—the Mind of God--can’t play favorites. It can’t favor one of its parts over others, any more than we can favor our right kidney over our left. So God, or destiny, or whatever we want to call it, hasn’t singled out some for riches and some for mediocrity. The loving Creator wants same good for all.
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