A martyr, of course, is someone who sacrifices much for a cause he or she believes in. People who are killed for their faith are martyrs. This is great and noble, but there is another kind of martyr that isn't so great and isn't so noble - the selfish martyr.

The selfish martyr is someone who believes that they are owed because of the sacrifices and pain that he or she was forced to endure. Some parents who sacrifice a lot for their children somehow believe that their children now owe them something. Perhaps a wife, who has sacrificed greatly due to a problematic marriage, feels that she is owed for her sacrifice, pain, grief, and burdens she's had to carry.

This sort of martyr is very dangerous and creates a tangled paradox that has detrimental effects on his or her relationships. To feel like you are owed for your love, care, generosity, dedication, faithfulness, provision, and even the resulting pain and suffering is an absurdity. It is like the kid in school who says, Ill like you, if youll like me.

These people complain and mope around, feeling sorry for themselves, trying to convince everyone that they are good people that is now owed something.

Lets say a wife cheats on her husband. The husband, who remains faithful, sticks with the marriage, works it out, and through great pain and suffering, is able to salvage his marriage. Then he suddenly uses this fact as leverage. He is the martyr here, he believes. He deserves more. He deserves some consideration because he was the one who remained faithful and stuck it out. So now, he demands special consideration from his wife and uses his 'goodness' like a whip.

This sort of selfish martyrdom is deceptively destructive. Love and sacrifice is not some sort of commodity that can be doled back to you with interest. If you start feeling this way, then maybe you ought to check your hearts condition. Youll overload your relationships with this sort of attitude. Youll think that youve done enoughand now you deserve a reward of some kind. Youll use your love and sacrifice as a weapon, as leverage to get your way, and to demand what you want.

That is highly manipulative and wrong. Your love is only love if you give it freely with no thought of reward or gain. Your sacrifice only has meaning if it is indeed a real sacrifice. If you think that you are owed for your sacrifice, then it was an investment, a loan, not a sacrifice. Once you start feeling like you've done enough, that you should somehow now be repaid, then you devalue your love and sacrifice. The truth is, if you feel this way, then we must wonder if it was really love to begin with.

Pastors can get this way. They love and sacrifice for people to such a large degree that at some point, if theyre not careful, they begin to think that they are owed by their congregation. The truth isthey are owed nothing. If someone takes your love and sacrifice and abuses it, runs over it, spits on it, or otherwise despises it, then that is okay. You didnt do it to gain anything anyway. So it doesnt matter how they treat you. The same ought to be true for husbands, wives, friends, and parents.

But to whine about how much youve given, sacrificed for, loved and so forth is being that selfish martyr. We need to stop this sort of foolishness. Love and sacrifice are a free gift. You love and sacrifice for your kids freely. If they choose to spit on it, that is their choice. It was for them to do with it as they wish. It might be a bad choice, but it is their choice nonetheless.

Naturally, this sort of attitude is hard to take. People don't like to have their efforts ignored or trampled over. But let's face it, real love and sacrifice must be freely given. To demand return, is to admit that you didn't really love.

Worse, this sort of selfish attitude contributes to all sorts of social paranoia. It will scar nearly every relationship you involve yourself in. It will skew your thinking so that you can't even see the good in people around you at all. You may even believe that the world is out to get you.

So avoid the selfish martyr. If you dont see yourself as a martyr, then you might be doing it right.

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