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small sacrifices

So I've been thinking a lot about sacrifice recently. What does it mean to sacrifice? Why should I do it? How can I better unite myself with the sufferings of Christ? I've been reading some articles on Facebook talking about this topic but there was one article that caused me to really look at how I go about sacrifice, specifically fasting. I don't really want to go into detail about exactly why fasting and sacrifice are good, there are plenty of resources on that. I do, however, want to throw in my two cents on what it looks like in my life.

 Anyways, after some thought (and watching an awesome video by Fr. Mike Schmitz), I decided I wanted to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. I figured the best way for me to do that, would be to pick something different to fast from each time, instead of going the traditional fasting from food route. So far, my go to's have been social media, music, and video. Hopefully, I can get a little more creative with what I'm giving up, but those were the first things I thought of. It sounds kind of pathetic to say that giving up something like social media for a day is difficult, but it really can be. I'm so accustomed to opening up any of my apps whenever I please, it's such an awful habit. I can't tell you how many times while I was fasting, I clicked on Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat, remembered I couldn't go on them, and depressingly closed out.

 Reflecting on my short time thus far spent fasting, I've had two major thoughts. Number 1: "How the heck is giving up ____ uniting me with the the Passion of Christ?" and number 2: "Really Laura? Jesus literally died on a freaking cross for you and you're struggling with giving up a luxury (not even a necessity like food) for two days out of the week??". 
Regarding both of these thoughts, thinking about how tiny my sacrifice is compared to Christ's, I try to remember the words of St. Dominic Savio: "I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God". I try to remind myself that although my sacrifice is small, it makes a huge difference in my life and in the lives of the people I offer it for. And although my "pain" is nowhere near the level of Christ's, I can still turn my thoughts of complaint into a meditation on the Passion. I can use my sacrifice as a prayer of thanksgiving for what the suffering, death, and resurrection of Him, did for me. Because that's a pretty great gift, and I'm going to attempt to repay even the tiniest piece of it, however I can.

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