In his letter he says he is working hard in school, it is his last year of high school. He plays basketball at the center and is trying to form a team to travel and play against other centers! He says he is a very happy person most of the time. Most importantly, he asked for prayer for his step-father, Julio to find work so he can help support the family. I ask that you join me in praying for Julio’s job situation in the Dominican Republic.

Our goal for Compassion Blog month is for 3,160 children to receive sponsoring families to allow them to have a better life. You can choose the child you help at the Compassion International website. It only costs $38 a month, you can do this. Change a life. Every time you receive a letter from your Compassion child it will melt your heart and put a smile on your face.

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Dictionary.com defines sacrifice this way:

sac·ri·fice [sak-ruh-fahys] noun, verb, sac·ri·ficed, sac·ri·fic·ing.
noun
1. the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.
2. the person, animal, or thing so offered.
3. the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
4. the thing so surrendered or devoted.
5. a loss incurred in selling something below its value.
6. Also called sacrifice bunt, sacrifice hit. Baseball. a bunt made when there are fewer than two players out, not resulting in a double play, that advances the base runner nearest home without an error being committed if there is an attempt to put the runner out, and that results in either the batter’s being put out at first base, reaching first on an error made in the attempt for the put-out, or being safe because of an attempt to put out another runner.
verb (used with object)
7. to make a sacrifice or offering of.
8. to surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else.
9. to dispose of (goods, property, etc.) regardless of profit.
10. Baseball. to cause the advance of (a base runner) by a sacrifice.
verb (used without object)
11. Baseball. to make a sacrifice: He sacrificed with two on and none out.
12. to offer or make a sacrifice.

Looking at those 12 definitions, we can omit the ones about baseball for the purpose of this post and see how the rest of them fit together to show us how sacrifice implies value.

Sacrificing for Education

Often in third world countries families can’t afford to send their children to school for one of two reasons, either they can’t pay for their education or they need the child to be at home to work and add to the family income in some way. Often families choose one child to attend school for the family. This is sacrifice on two fronts. The family is sacrificing the education of the other children for the benefit of this one and they are sacrificing the immediate earning potential of the child going to school in hopes of increased earning potential in the future. Parents shouldn’t have to choose which child can get an education.

Sacrificing for Others

When we finally said No More Excuses and decided to sponsor a child through Compassion International we had to make some adjustments in our budget because there wasn’t an extra $38 a month lying around. Even for us, this wasn’t a huge sacrifice but I did give up something I liked…and was blessed when I found a less expensive option that I loved! Three days a week, when I am out and about in the morning I enjoyed stopping at McDonalds for hot cocoa, I am not a coffee drinker and cocoa is my warm beverage of choice. The average cost was $1.50 a day x 3 days a week=$4.50×4 weeks=$19 a month on cocoa. I was introduced to Land O Lakes French Vanilla Hot Cocoa that I can make at home for only $0.50 a day so I instantly saved $12 a month to put towards our sponsored child. That left us needing $26 more a month. That was easy…we cut back on going out to eat on Sundays! We eat lunch at home every Sunday instead of going out after church. This was a difficult change at first but now it is our new normal and we are able to send our $38 to help Aderlin with his needs in the Dominican Republic and sacrificing expensive hot cocoa and a meal at a restaurant is worth it when the investment is in the life of another human being!

To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice

1 Samuel 15:22 New Living Translation (NLT)

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A Message to My Childhood Self

When I look back through the lens of time, I had a pretty good childhood. My first 16 years were spent in Massachusetts as an upper middle class family. The rest of my life I have been in Florida. We are a strong family and we weathered most of what life threw at us pretty well.

Thinking back, the one piece of advice I wish I had known is…”Be flexible, don’t hold onto your plans too tightly.” I have always been a planner, a bit of a control freak and part dreamer. I enjoy change for change’s sake but I don’t like when change is forced upon me.

As a young girl I had my plans- finish high school, go to college, be a teacher/actress/singer, get married, have 4 children, live in a nice house and live happily ever after. A lot of those plans have come to fruition, but not at all how I had planned them. I was a teacher-I homeschooled my children for 16 years. I am an actress and a singer I have been in many community productions and even one professional one. I’ve sung on the worship team at church, and I have sung at countless weddings, funerals and special events. I have directed numerous plays and musicals in the church and homeschool community. This is not what I thought my life would look like but God has used my dreams and used them for His glory!

We live in a fallen world and things like illness, corruption, addictions and temptations befall us and those around us. These evils and others cause pot holes in the path of our lives. Often times they even cause sink holes which require detours-changes in the path, so we can move forward. Fortunately, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” Psalm 37:23 NLT.

Turning your life, your hopes and your dreams over to Jesus when you accept Him as your Lord and Savior does NOT mean your life will be smooth sailing from there on out. It does mean that as you grow to be more like Jesus your hopes and dreams become the hopes and dreams He has for you. It also means you will never be alone again and that He will be with you when you come upon a pot hole or sink hole along the road of life. He will be there to give you wisdom in your decision making and if you listen to Him your path will be made clear.

I pray regularly for my Compassion child, Aderlin and I always pray that he will seek God’s wisdom and plans for his life. I pray that because of our help through Compassion International, he will rise above his circumstances and grow into an influential man of God.

About Compassion International Blog Month

The goal for Compassion blog month is for 3,160 more children to receive sponsors. It is easy to sponsor a child…the hard part for me was to pick which child to sponsor! It only costs $38 a month to change the life of a child. If I can do this so can you. Just click on the widget in my sidebar or the links in this post to meet some of the children waiting for you to make a difference in their lives.

The post A Message to My Childhood Self appeared first on The Mom Maven.

We have been married 21 years and our finances have never been this unstable. We have 2 kids in college and we have taken in a teenage girl from church. My husband hasn’t been paid in over 3 months but guess what? This month we will be committing to sponsor a Compassion child. I know in my heart that now is the time. When Aaron gets back from working out of town this week we will get together as a family and discuss if we want to sponsor a boy or a girl and what country we want them to be from. We will also decide how old we would like the child to be. This is a family project, a mission, where we can all give financial support and prayer support to a child who has even less than we do. With God’s help, we will be able to help give a child a better life and a better future.

This month Compassion International has set a goal of having 3,108 children sponsored  through the work of the Compassion Bloggers Network. I am honored to be a part of that network and I have a 3 step call to action for you.

1.  Visit Compassion’s sponsor a child page and look around.
2. Pray. Ask God to show you if this is the right time for you to step out and change the life of a child. If His answer is, “Yes!” Have your own family meeting and then come back here and move on to step 3. If His answer is, “Not now.” Please pray regularly for the Compassion International organization and all of the families they touch.
3. Commit to sponsor  a child or two!

Disclosure: I ask you do do these things through my links because, as much as I whole-heartedly believe in this organization, I am also in a little competition with other Compassion Bloggers to see who drives the most traffic to the site AND who brings in the most new sponsors. I am receiving a gift for this post but I would have written it even if I didn’t receive a thing. All opinions are 100% mine.

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