Strive for Success 

   When I decided to make the Navy my career I also decided to make it a successful one.  I did those things necessary to advance through the ranks as quickly as possible.  I made some difficult choices, worked hard, and made some sacrifices along the way, but I did what I set out to do; in a twenty year career I advanced to Master Chief Petty Officer, a position not often achieved in a twenty year career.

   I don’t offer that story as a way of saying “look at what I did”, but as a lesson for anyone seeking to achieve success.  Whatever the chosen profession there will be sacrifices necessary to climb the ladder and reach that top rung.  Many fail to achieve their goal simply because they aren’t willing to do what is necessary to attain it.

   Much in life is the same, anything worth achieving requires hard work and sacrifice.  Not only in one’s chosen profession but in life itself.  A successful marriage has to include compromise and hard work if it is to last.  Only if we are willing to love our spouse more than ourselves, never seeing them as an object to be used for our own desires can marriage be truly successful.

   The same applies to my spiritual life.  The most important goal in life is the goal of spending eternity in God’s heavenly kingdom.  This too will require hard work and sacrifice; just read the lives of the saints and you will see how much they sacrificed for their faith.  Jesus said that I must renounce myself and pick up my cross daily if I am to follow Him (Luke 9:23).

   I worked hard to have a successful Navy career.  My wife and I loved with a love that could only have come from God and our marriage was blessed; our love will remain eternally.  But the greatest love, the greatest success is to be found in God.  If I am unwilling to work hard and sacrifice in my spiritual life, I am unworthy of Him and His love.