“Offer it up” is the mantra of my children’s childhood. Don’t want
to clean your room? Hate the broccoli? “Offer it up. Work on your
parade!” My children hear it daily. Your brother is annoying and you
wanna kill him but don’t? “Offer it up!” You skin your knee trying to
ride your bike down the hill and don’t scream because the baby is
sleeping? (You’re my new favorite child!) “Offer it up!”
When I was a girl, my grandmother would tell me this all the time.
“Offer it up!” I was never really sure why God would want me to suffer
through not biting my big brother, or politely eating the cauliflower
that made me gag, but I’d look up at Heaven anyway and think “If you
want it, you’ve got it……why would you want it?”
It wasn’t until I was older that I figured it all out. God doesn’t
want our suffering. He wants our obedience. He wants our humility. He
wants our charity. He wants our self-control. That’s why we offer the
pain, discomfort, and sorrow that we experience up to Him. Not because
He desires those things, but because our acceptance of our own crosses
become a prayer of obedience to Him.
Go read the rest over at Ignitum Today.
3 comments:
Great post!
It was what I heard all the time too....Newly married to my husband who hadn't converted yet, it was all I said because it was so ingrained in me. 7 years later the words get repeated to me and now we both say it to Hannah. It's hilarious! It's the truth! quit yer bit*& and offer it up! :)
When I first started saying it to my oldest son, he said one time, "Moooom, I offered it to God, but he didn't take it!!" ;)
My mom always used to say this to us, too. Sometimes I got it, sometimes I rolled my eyes. I don't think she enjoyed it when I got to college and she'd complain about something and I got to throw it back at her! :) Now I'm off to read the whole thing.
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