Privileges and Responsibilities - Budzinski Sacrifices/Benefits

We always made sure that as each birthday came, that we would give the person NEW responsibilities together with NEW privileges for each age.

Taking that a step further, we require a lot of "over the top" sacrifices to be a "Budzinski" (or whatever YOUR last name is!) Some of the sacrifices we require:

1. Loyalty to each other.
2. Respect for others' property. You should be able to put something of yours down and know no one will use, take or borrow it without your permission. (We are still working on this today for consistency!)
3. Sticking up for each other, and believing the best even though sometimes it comes out wrong.
4. Respecting each other's (sometimes mercurial) moods.
5. Making time to be TOGETHER when sometimes you'd rather be alone. Sacrificing "alone time" for the "bunch". This means that you may NOT be able to "pick the game" or the movie, your conversations may be interrupted, it may be WAY louder than you "feel like", but the end result is EXPERIENCES together and FUN MEMORIES together, and you make the sacrifice.
6. Overlooking faults and choosing to see the best.
7. Making things right even when it seems almost impossible.

These things may seem not-too-demanding at first glance, but they ARE things that require stepping out of "yourself" to consider others more important. BECAUSE of the extreme sacrifices we request, we also make place for "Budzinski benefits" which are benefits that you can count on because you're in the fam. We try to keep the "Budzinski benefits" as much over-the-top as the "Budzinski sacrifices" are.

Jesse many times says that often people will want the same results without putting forth the same sacrifices, whether in the area of physical things (such as wanting the ripped guys' physique without putting in the time at the gym), spiritual (wanting spiritual wisdom without putting in Bible study and prayer time), intellectual (wanting to know more without taking the time to study), social (wanting friends without taking the time to nurture and develop friendships), etc.

Challenge: Make sure you sit down with your family and decide on the sacrifices you want to make to keep YOUR family special and over-the-top. Then, list some of the BENEFITS you want provided to reward such extraordinary efforts. The more extraordinary the sacrifices you think need to be made, try to make some extraordinary benefits as well!