April the Month of Sacrifice

by Barbara Phinney,

This year, Easter falls in the month of April, and as with the rebirth of the land up here above the equator shows us, we're ready for a rebirth in our own lives.
Which means sacrifice.
In fact, as in our books, where the hero and heroine sacrifice something for the love of the other, I have found myself doing the same thing.
My daughter is whipping me into shape. (I told her that ROUND is a shape!)
My husband and I are off to Florida in two weeks and my daughter is determined that I look my best. She's got me on a diet she read about in her Self magazine. While she says she can feel the pounds dropping off her (she's 19, for goodness' sake. Cutting out one fancy cappiccino will do that), I'm looking at the itty bitty portion of food she's made for me and thinking that pounds aren't falling off me, it's tears of sadness!
But this is the month of sacrifices. I must make some, and even in my writing, I need to make some. I have a deadline coming up and I need to set aside the things I like to do in order to focus on my manuscript.
I need to show my readers that my characters are worth rooting for, that they have learned valuable lessons in the course of the story, and that the bad guys don't get ahead.
We sacrifice all the time. But we must also remember the ultimate sacrifice God made for us, by sending His only Son to take the blame for all our sins.
We can't match that, but we can sacrifice things in our daily lives. Things we don't really need and that aren't good for us, but what we want just the same.
Things like all that food I was eating. And the time I was wasting instead of working on my manuscript.
Time to rethink our lives and what we're doing that isn't healthy for us.
Time to thank God for all He's given us.