Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of our FMF blog link-up.
We gather week after week around a single word prompt to freewrite for five minutes flat. If you’re new, you can find more information about how it all works here.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: COSTÂ
GO.
When I look back on some of the bigger decisions I’ve made in my life, I’ve realized that I’m not very good at stopping to consider the way my choices might directly affect other people.
Take my decision to move to South Africa, for example.
Before deciding to extend my study permit in Cape Town and eventually marry a South African man, I selfishly thought about all the things and people I would miss in the U.S. by taking up permanent residency in a foreign country . . . but I gave little thought to the impact my choice would have on those closest to me.
When we made the (rather quick) decision to adopt our oldest child after already having two biological kids, I had little time to process all that our decision could entail — I just trusted that it was God’s will, and took the next step. At the time, I did not consider the impact our decision might have on other people.
I could go on, but you get the picture.
I have not always counted the cost beyond the potential impact on my own life.
I have thought of myself before others.
As I recognize the depth of my own selfishness I’m convicted by Philippians 2:3-4:
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”Â
I thank God that He did not put Himself first when He sacrificed His Son on the cross so I could be set free.
STOP.
***
Join the link-up with your own five-minute free write below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment!Â
I am sure that there must be
an easier way to die,
but it isn’t all ’bout me,
and the cost would be too high.
There’s no insurance for my care,
not even for the pain.
The cost is more than we can bear,
and the result would be the same.
I will not put my dear sweet wife
beneath an endless burden
that will pillory her life;
of that, I’m darn well certain.
Somehow, it hurts less when I know
that she’ll be OK when I go.
I’m in the same boat, my friend. We often (ok, usually) count the cost to ourselves and rarely count the cost others might pay for our decisions. Thank you for reminding me to look at the big picture.
“How much does it cost?” That’s a question we never asked when we sensed the Lord leading us into foster care. His heart of love and our big house with lots of bedrooms–have provided the call and the keeping and the provision of cost-keeping expenses. Emotional expenditures have loomed larger than we ever thought. Roller-coaster fellings and behavior have cost us our naive thaought about expectations of children. How much does it cost to rescue a child from unsafe situations and restore them to a live of hope and safety–even peace and joy? COST is spelled LOVE when you care for a child from a hard place. Too expensive? No, Jesus covers the cost.
Cost: I did things in my life that cost me to not start my life out right after my mother passaway in 1988. I will add more to this word later.