Jun 8, 2018
Sacrifice
Choice and sacrifice: the words are used almost interchangeably. The words are not synonyms in any way shape or form. The first definition of sacrifice in the Google online dictionary is “an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure.”
A choice is much less benign and, generally, less supernatural in scope. We make a choice at lunch between a burger and a wrap, for instance. A choice is, according to Google, “an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.”
Another, more pertinent definition of sacrifice, per Google, is “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.” Women often sacrifice their own happiness to stay in unhealthy marriages “for the children.” Women often deem children, the marriage, the husband’s careers or even the men themselves, as being more important than anything about our own lives. So we make the “choice” to stay in unhealthy and even violent marriages. What we are really doing is sacrificing our very life, emotions, and soul to stay with a man who is telling us in words and deeds that he agrees with us; that he is much more important than we are.
Is it a choice or is it a sacrifice that we are making when we stay in these thankless and oftentimes dangerous situations? Is it choice or is it sacrifice when we could leave a violent home and live without fear and worry but we stay “for the children” or “for security?”
Let’s start choosing not to sacrifice.
