People wear a cross on necklaces, sport one on bumper stickers and even slap on across T-shirts, but what does the cross really stand for? What does it really mean? Over the next two weeks, we will take a look at the cross in a different way, a way that moves beyond gratitude and nostalgia to a way of life. The cross teaches us that we live so we can die, and we die so we can live.
We will look at 2 questions:
1)What are some ways that I am challenged to sacrifice myself in everyday life?
2)What does it mean to live life to the full? How does that compare to my life?
Dying to something you want. It’s a concept we are talking to your kids about during The Cross series, but if you are a parent, it’s something you know very well. Parenthood is all about dying to yourself.
It’s dying to your plans when a child gets sick the day of your dinner plans.
It’s dying to your wants when that son who seems to never stop growing needs yet another new pair of shoes—and you make do with the old pair you’ve had for a few years.
It’s dying to your need for love when you say or do the hard thing for your child, knowing that a valuable lesson will be learned but that he or she will hate you in the process.
Parenthood is a constant process of putting someone’s needs before your own.
And because of that, we just want to say, “Thank you.” Thank you for making the hard decisions. Thank you for sacrificing your time. Thank you for working hard to provide for your family. Thank you for all the things you do, the decisions you make daily to die to your own list of wants and desires in order to help someone else. Thank you for being an example to your child of what it means to die to yourself—even if he or she is clueless about all the ways you do it.
(Some day, your child will realize it. Trust us.)
www.orangeparents.org
Published on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 @ 5:58 PM CDT
