Making Sacrifices for Others Can Change Your Life for the Better

People were shocked that I would give up being childless and supposedly free to do anything I wanted to raise my late sister’s four children. However, making the sacrifices of time, money, and love was the best decision of my life. I was headed to an early grave, drinking beer and playing cards all day. I married at nineteen, and we spent half the year with his mother and the other half with my mother. Neither of us worked, and I was just glad to have someone.

But when I took responsibility for four young lives, I knew I had to change my life. I went to work, and though I missed the carefree life, I got so much joy and a sense of accomplishment from working to provide for us and to get us out of poverty. It has been my sacrifices for them that made life purposeful and joyful. I had to wait until I was 36 to go to college. I was in my 50s before I could travel. But, knowing that my children would have better lives and their children, too, made the things I didn’t have and couldn’t do seem small in comparison.

I didn’t hesitate when asked who would mother my sister’s children. My sister’s had made sacrifices for me when we changed homes nearly every year of our childhoods, living with relatives who often didn’t want us in their homes. She fought my battles because I was always shy and scared to fight. I owed her, big time.

There were days when taking care of four small children was overwhelming, especially when I left the marriage because he didn’t want to take care of other people’s children anymore. Given a choice of remaining in a bad marriage or living for my children, I chose the vulnerable ones who needed me, regardless of the long hours I had to work to provide for them and me. But, later I was blessed with a good husband, and he was worth the wait.

So, for some people, sacrifices seem like you are losing something valuable, but when we make sacrifices for others, our lives change for the better. We reach our destinies, because we have to change our lives to meet the obligations to the ones for whom we sacrifice all to heal their broken hearts, help them reach their full potential, and to give them hope that the loss of a mother is the end. In doing so, we profit as much as they do.