Today I Choose to Put Others Before Myself...

Today I choose to put others before myself. To look for the needs of others and put those needs before my own, living a less self focused life.
I think that parents have a good understanding of what it means to put someone else before themselves. The second that you find out your are pregnant your baby's well being and needs come first. You have to sacrifice things that you love, like real coffee and settle for decaf or you give up that yummy sushi for something fully cooked, all because those things could harm your baby's well being. Although at times you may feel like you NEED those things, you give them up because you love your baby more than you love anything you are giving up. We learn to put someone else before ourselves because we love them. Our children shouldn't be the only ones that we put before ourselves, we are called to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself."(Philippians 2:3)
Putting others before ourselves is not easy, it is a constant battle that we must face. Because truly, the easiest thing is to be selfish and the devil tries to convince us that we will gain the most out of being selfish, but in reality it is the most destructive. Luke 9:23 says, "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'" We are called to follow Christ's example daily, not every other day, not once a week, but every single day. We have to make a choice to follow Him and give up our own personal desires. Luke chapter 9 goes on to say, "'For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Nothing on this earth could ever compensate for the loss of eternal life. At the end of my life, when I meet my Savior face to face I want him to tell me well done, good and faithful servant. In order to be a good and faithful servant, I must love others, put them before myself and follow God's will for my life.
I have been resettling with this idea and question that I thought of today. Is giving up our own plans and desires really a sacrifice when we know that God has a plan that is so much greater than we could ever imagine? I think our human side sees it as a sacrifice because we are selfish by nature, but I think we have to see it as faith, trust, and hope in God who dreams so much bigger than we ever could. We should desire his plan because his plan is best! It's all about our perspective. What we give up now could never compare to what we gain, eternal life with our Savior. So I think we need to live out the words of 1 Peter 1:22-25 and have an eternal mindset. "Now that you have purified yourself by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable; through the living and enduring word of God. For, 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.'" The things of this world will fade, people and their accomplishments are forgotten, but the word of the Lord stands forever. It is never fading, never changing and never forgotten. I think when we start to look at life with the eternal mindset of what we can do while we are on this earth to bring God glory and how we can tell others about the gospel, putting others before ourselves becomes easier, our love for others becomes more sincere and in the end God receives all of the glory.
So today, I choose to put others before myself. To God be the glory!