Remember when you were in grade school and your friend wanted to trade their sandwich with yours at lunchtime? Remember thinking that you didn't really want to, but you did it just to maintain the friendship? Remember biting into your newly-aquired ham and cheese and just wishing you could still call that PBJ your own? But at the same time being glad because your friend was now closer to you than ever?
Well, I remember that too.
But now adulthood is here in full-force and there is no turning back to the school cafeteria.
And the trade-offs get a bit harder to navigate.
We trade things everyday to get what we want. Taking on extra work hours to afford that new roof on the house. Stepping down from that important and exciting position because your family needs your time. Giving up an important relationship because it's dragging you down and you know it.
Adult trade-offs aren't so simple.
Trading things up with God is an entirely different story. With Him, the big winner is me.
Everytime.
Think about these trade-offs described in Isaiah 61:
***I get beauty by handing off the ashes of my life.
***He gives me the oil of joy simply by giving Him my mourning.
***To receive the garment of praise, all I have to do is to give up the spirit of heaviness that I have been dragging around.
Not to shabby, don't you think?
The clear winner in all of these trades is me. And He promises the same to you!
If we give Him the weight of the world that we carry around, He gives us life and freedom. Honestly, I can't believe that in so many areas I resisted this trade for so many years. I guess for some of us it takes being put in a place where the choice is so clear that it is almost made for us.
But that's OK.
Trade-offs have been made.
And I couldn't be happier about it!
Thanks. I needed that.
Posted by: Lynda | June 14, 2013 at 11:43 AM