Sacrifice - It Just Feels Good!!
This morning as I was making my 100,000,001 sandwich for my Husband's lunch, I remembered when he first started working at his present job. I had been laid off in September, he got laid off in March or so, but we still went ahead with the decision that I would become a stay-at-home-mom. He started his new job in May, but the world he was used to had completely changed. He was at a more prestigious job, making more money, working with highly educated people...and he was taking his lunch to work now; something he rarely did prior to my leaving work. Now we were living on one salary, so even though he was making more - WE were making less.
I remember one day when a female co-worker jokingly mentioned his redneck Tupperware (a repurposed butter tub) and I simply wanted to either cut her guts out or crawl in the corner to cry. I mean, we weren't poor - but we are frugal and it just didn't seem sensible to pay good money for Tupperware when I had this perfectly good butter tub to use. And it also didn't seem reasonable to spend money on his lunch out when I was here to make his lunch for a bazillion times cheaper. But MY ego got in the way and I suggested that he start eating lunch out - that I didn't want his co-workers looking down on him.
He laughed at me - YEP - laughed right at me! It didn't bother him one bit what she said. He explained that it was a simple little joke (not funny!) and what did he care if she DID mean it? He was very proud of the fact that his Wife got up in the mornings and cared enough about him to make his lunch! He was proud that he could leave home and know that I was here to make sure our Daughters were taken care of - that I was available to them 24/7. He was happy to come home to a home-cooked dinner, that he didn't have to spend the weekends cleaning house and doing laundry.
Most important thing to me is that he is proud of himself for being able to take care of his family in the manner that we found most important. The fact that he is so willing to give up the little things (fancy car, eating out, a thousand cable channels, expensive vacations, etc.) allowed us to have a steady presence in our girls teenage years - the time when they certainly don't NEED you physically - but boy do they NEED you!
Here's my point - our Blessings far outweigh our Sacrifice. And this is only a small example of sacrificing. Some folks simply cannot follow our path - or even want to - and that is perfectly fine. This isn't about staying at home for your kids - this is about learning to sacrifice for whatever YOUR personal greater good is. And realizing that once you start making that change - once you give up something to earn something else - it truly feels GOOD! You start to have that personal pride knowing you are working towards a goal. What you are giving up is nothing compared to what you are gaining in return!
Isn't it amazing how one seemingly innocent remark can send us into a tailspin!!!? I repurpose stuff all the time - including butter tubs! If some poor soul chooses to spend money on a fancy container, let'em! Counting my blessings with you!!
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