Lenten Sacrifices

Each year during Lent I usually give up junk food, or I make resolutions to exercise more. My sister-in-law, Susie, always gets mad at that because she feels like that's not much of a sacrifice, she says it's more about doing something positive for myself. But I do feel deprived not eating junk food, so I felt it was somewhat of a sacrifice, and I hate exercising and would rather be doing something else with my time, so I felt that was a sacrifice too. But Susie is right, there is a selfish benefit from all my 'sacrificing'. This year Lent came too quick for me, I knew Fat Tuesday was coming because my brother-in-law Donald asked us to go to a Mardi Gras celebration at his church (he had just come back from a trip to New Orleans, he was down there with a group from his church rebuilding), but somehow I didn't think about Ash Wednesday and Lent starting. My husband and I, and Susie and one of her son's, Adam, went to the Mardi Gras party, and while we were on the way there Adam started complaining that he "didn't even want to go to this thing". He complained the whole time we were there how lame it was, and he complained the whole car ride home. Susie kept telling him how rude he was and that he was there for Donald and to stop with the nasty comments (a phrase that I learned from my Mom and the Sisters at St. Luke's School kept coming to mind - "Offer it up"). But I got to thinking that while we were all there for Donald, we weren't actually having a horrible time, I enjoy doing things with my husband and his family. I have a lot of fun with Susie and I look forward to spending time with her. Adam on the other hand was bored out of his mind and would much rather have been home on his computer, so Adam was making a real sacrifice. Okay, he wasn't sacrificing with a happy heart, but he was still sacrificing, his sacrifice just came accompanied with a lot of grumbling.
Susie asked me what I was giving up for Lent this year and I said I hadn't even thought about it. She said she wasn't giving up anything, so I laughed and said I'd join her in that Lenten sacrifice. And I'm not going to give up anything this year, I'm not going to sacrifice, but I am going to make some Lenten resolutions, I will try to get to church more often, I am going to try and remember to thank God and live each day with a thankful heart (I have so much to be thankful for), and if a situation presents itself and I am 'forced' to sacrifice, I am going to try to 'offer it up' and do it with a happy heart.