“Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.” // 1 Samuel 15:22
Chop, chop, chop. The crisp sound of the knife sliding through the potatoes calms my nerves along with the quiet hum of the sous vide cooking the steaks for dinner. I give myself over to the task—forming loving thoughts in my mind toward my husband and children who will be nourished by the food I prepare. In just a few minutes, I will have an hour of writing in my quiet room at my antique secretary while the food cooks.
This accustomed afternoon hour has eluded me for days, as I have been obedient to the unusually demanding needs of my family. “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” Samuel tells King Saul in the reading today. It is easy for me to think of the countless phone calls and text messages I made on behalf of my daughter to treat the infection inflaming her sinuses as a penitential sacrifice. I dislike making calls. I have also thought of the tedium of helping my son through his first-grade homeschool curriculum or the forty-five minutes it takes to pick up my eldest’s carpool from school as offerings. Many days I attend to the needs of my family thinking of myself as a martyr sacrificing myself and my wants for their sake.
But this week, I have found a special grace in obeying the needs of the present moment out of love.
It is a good thing to offer up our hardships sacrifices to the Lord, but it is better if we do them as loving acts of obedience to the Lord and toward those we serve. Loving through obedience is better than a reluctant sacrifice.
Sister, the Lord wants more for us than a grudging acceptance of the mundane tasks that fill our days. He wants us to not only obey His call in our life, but to obey out of love. Ask Him for this grace today and open your heart to living it out. He will not fail you.
Obey the needs of the present moment. // @susannacspencerClick to tweet
Susanna Spencer holds a master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the Devotions Editor for Blessed is She. She is a freelance writer and editor and a teacher-in-training living with her philosopher husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, and casually following baseball. She is the author of the Gospel Studies including Seek His Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew , Listen to Him: A Meditation on Mark, and Abide in His Love: A Meditation on John. She was narrator for Found: Advent With the Good Shepherd and Rescued: Lent With the Lamb of God and a contributing author and editor for our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up. She was the Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.
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