Learning to Sacrifice

Andrew and I are getting ready to move again. If you don't know us, we have moved a lot in our marriage, and I mean A LOT! First we moved into a house together when we got married, then a year later our house flooded and so we lived in approximately 5 different places that summer before settling into our friend's basement. Then when I graduated we moved to an apartment in Ames and then a year later we moved into this house. Now here we are, only a year after moving into this house and we are moving, again! Andrew and I have only been married for 4 years...so that's a lot of moving if you ask me!

One thing I am currently learning is the idea of sacrifice. Andrew and I are going to have to sacrifice a lot of things when we move to Story City. We are looking at an apartment tomorrow and I am going to try my best to have an open mind while there. We both agreed that the best way for us to get ahead of our debt is for us to live CHEAP, meaning renting for a couple years. The apartment would be approximately 300 square feet less than our current house, have only 2 bedrooms, no bathtub, no central air, no garage, we would be living above a restaurant which means no ground access, no yard, no dishwasher, and possibly no washer/dryer. Don't get me wrong though, it's still a decent place! In my head though I keep saying "what are we doing??? are we nuts???!!! we have it so good here, so why move????" I love our current house and the more I think about moving the more teary eyed I get. But my heart keeps saying "don't you want to pay off your student loans? don't you want the possibility of being a stay at home mom to actually be a realistic option in the future? don't you want to only live 5 minutes from work? don't you want to help your husband pursue his dream job?"

God has really been speaking to me through a book called "The Treasure Principle." It's a book our Pastor gave us to read and it's really teaching me about the idea of sacrifice and how everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, belongs to God. God blesses us with everything we need and in turn we need to give him the glory and honor for providing for us. Therefore, since everything belongs to God and NOT me, I should be perfectly fine giving up this great house because deep down I know that God is going to provide us with everything we need. So what if I have to be creative in how I bathe Josiah with no tub. So what if I have to hand wash my dishes every day. So what if we have to get a storage unit to store everything that we won't be needing in our apartment. So what if I have to rely on city parks and daily walks to get my dog and child out of the house. It's going to be a challenge, but I KNOW life will be so much more enjoyable when I don't have thousands of dollars in debt tied around my neck.