SACRIFICE

Today I received a letter. You might remember the kind, in an envelope with a stamp and handwritten.  It was sent to me by Chaplain Rob J in either Iraq or Afghanistan.  He wanted to thank me for sending Pockets of Peace books to his soldiers.  He indicated they keep a library and the books have been added 'for the guys to enjoy.'  He concluded, "We greatly appreciate your sacrifice." 

And what exactly is my sacrifice? This bothered me all day.

He is the one in harm's way, he is the one making the sacrifice.

We have all heard 'no sacrifice no victory.' I looked the word up in Websters and found that 'sacrifice is something lost or surrended in order to gain an objective.'  

So yes, perhaps I do understand.  And yes, perhaps I do sacrifice.  I spend endless hours that seen to speed by at a frenetic pace at the computer. I spend almost every waking hour furthering the mission and purpose of Penny's From Heaven Foundation.  It is my passion. And for passion one must lose or surrender and sacrifice.  Passion of work, of country, of love.  Having to give up something (or sacrifice something) for something else is a sacrifice.  And yes sometimes you have to dodge the bullets.

So to Chaplain Rob J, I say thank you.  And I say thank you to those of you who sacrifice for others.  Henry Ward Beecher reminds us that, "In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich."

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Martin Luther King, Jr ~ "Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?"

Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944) French aviator and writer.

"The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves."

 - Eric Hoffer

"No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life."

- Ernest Renan