Serving together
Serving together – a family that stays together.
You’ve heard the saying, “Families that pray together, stay together.” And I agree, but I think there’s a similar common bond to those individuals who serve together. We form a family-like bond that keeps us together through the ups and downs of life.
Proverbs speaks also of the importance of close and nearby relationships.
Proverbs 27:10 says, “Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbour who is near than a brother who is far away.”
As parents, we want our children to learn to live unselfishly, and to grow into thoughtful, aware adults. Finding and making time to teach children about serving others can be daunting, so here are a few tips to making service a natural part of your family’s life.
Create space
Try to balance your family’s activities in order to make serving a priority. A wise man once said “love is actually spelled t-i-m-e.” Service requires time. A family that is exhausted and overscheduled will find it difficult to even think about helping out at the local food pantry – not because they don’t want to, but because they are simply too tired to figure out what they will be having for dinner that night.
Service is a way of life
Serving must be more about who you are, not what you do. The easiest way to do this is simply to listen and be aware. Find a need, great or small, and work as a family to fill it. Rather than just carrying out a major service project once or twice a year, mould your family into one which serves year round. Help someone with a dead car battery, pay for the groceries of the person in front of you, or let someone go ahead of you in line. These seemingly small acts work to create the kind of change that you desire.
Involve them!
If you are delivering a plate of cookies to a friend, get your children involved in baking. If you are visiting an elderly friend, bring your child along. Create dialogue as you are working together about the way you are choosing to serve.
Big or small — it still counts
Service doesn’t have to be measured by the grand scale of the plan or by the number of people served. Mother Teresa said it best when she said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
Rachel x
Want to know more?
Grow Ministries has a fact sheet that encourages serving by looking at the example set by Jesus. He not only served but encouraged his disciples to serve too.
Did you know?
This article featured in our Grow Together magazine. Grow Together, is a quarterly printed (hard-copy) newsletter and resource aimed to help equip parents and families with inspiration to take up their spiritual role as parents, grandparents and carers, as they parent with eternity in mind.
Grow Together can be ordered on our website, there is a 12 or 24 month subscription. You can order copies for your family, congregation or school. Click here to find out more.
