A seven-year-old girl giving her allowance to a food pantry, an executive taking a homeless man out to lunch, a family donating a third of their earnings to charity—all generous gifts. But are they sacrifices, and what’s the difference anyway?

Gift Versus Sacrifice

While a gift can be a beautiful way to show your love, a sacrifice is something that costs you something, significantly. Generosity is typically easy. Sacrifice is not. A gift shows your kindness toward someone. A sacrifice elevates others above you.

Not to say that there’s anything wrong with gifts. Of course not! But what a more wonderful place this world would be if we went above and beyond the gift to the sacrifice.

And so at times I feel guilty because I’ve gifted Jesus with fifteen minutes of my time, when it was convenient. Or when I’ve given change to the Salvation Army lady at Christmas time. What’s a few quarters to me? Or when I’ve given my children a book, when what they really want is me, all of me—my mind present with them, my body physically wrapped around theirs. They want a sacrifice.

When we go beyond generosity and kindness to the level of sacrifice, I think that’s when real living occurs. It’ll cost you something, but the payback is immense. So here’s a challenge to you and to me.

What sacrifice will you make today?

I’d love you to share what sacrifice you are considering in the comment box below.