Serving Others... Really???

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This is some of what I said at church the other Sunday...

“Inspection stickers used to have printed on the back “Drive carefully – the life you save may be your own.” That is the wisdom of men in a nutshell.

What God says, on the other hand, is “The life you save is the life you lose.” In other words, the life you clutch, hoard, guard, and play safe with is in the end a life worth little to anybody, including yourself, and only a life given away for love’s sake is a life worth living. To bring his point home, God shows us a man who gave his life away to the extent of dying a national disgrace without a penny in the bank or a friend to his name.” Frederich Buechner

I don’t think I truly knew what that meant until Sierra came along. She’s my extra blessing. Scott and my oldest daughter, Kayla, had made a deal with God that they forgot to let me in on! I was ready to go back to work – climb the ladder, ready to speak like an adult again, ready to have my life back. All of a sudden that changed. Sierra’s coming required that I rework my dreams and desires. For me, being a parent meant putting some of the things I wanted to do on hold for a couple decades. My choice. There were too many things I wanted to be in on with my kids, too many moments I didn’t want to miss out on if I didn’t have to. God has been amazing in developing new passions that worked with my life as a parent. I found new ways to serve my family and God.

Now, I’m getting to the point again of wanting to get my life back and God, once more, has something else for me. He has grown a love in me for behind the scenes work with women’s ministries and with my sweetie in men’s ministry. Scott is a fire-starter and I love being there to serve and support him. Here is some of what I mean:

I serve my husband best by

taking care of things so he can minister without worries,

feeding “the boys” when they come over (even though it drives him nuts!),

praying for him and those he’s with,

listening to him so he can process his ideas,

allowing him to be “man” – take risks, be adventurous, rescue me and others.

I serve my family best by

keeping the house in order – well, almost in order

keeping them healthy

giving them boundaries, discipline

teaching them

spending time with them, making sure they know they’re loved

showing them Christ’s love in action– “let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth!” 1 John 3:18

praying for them, with them

I serve my friends best by

listening (we do have two ears and one mouth for a reason)

praying for them

being honest with them

inviting them to share in my life

checking in on them, encouraging them

I serve everyone in my life

By taking time for me so I can refresh, renew, and find my sanity cuz “if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” - spending time in the word/with God helps me do that. Spending time away from my “work”, my family, also helps me do that.

I serve Christ

By doing all of this – by showing love in action

So, now that I’ve said this, it becomes clear that God has developed a passion in me to serve. It was never something I WANTED to do, not something I came up with, but He’s sure made it something I can’t NOT do.


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