Servant Hearts

As future hopes for my children constantly whirl through my mind, one characteristic we consistently strive for is having the heart of a servant.  All of us have the natural, sinful tendency to withdraw from hard work, to choose our own selfish desires over taking care or doing something for someone else and my children are no different! But Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and so I want to teach my children the joy in imitating our Savior by serving the needs of others.

When you have a big family, its easy to come up with ways for everyone to be involved in serving.  At ages seven, four and three, Mikias, Molly Kate and Miles already set the table for dinner every evening (Miles puts out the placemats, Mikias the napkins and Molly Kate the silverware).  Mikias serves by feeding Annie every morning and giving her weekly baths.  Miles generally serves by cleaning up various messes, whether its mud on the kitchen floor or getting rid of dead bugs!  Whenever I need one of the children’s help with something, I always phrase the question with “Will you serve Mommy by doing…?”  And whenever any of the children randomly do something for someone else, like put another child’s shoes in the basket or take clean laundry to their rooms, I always try to praise them for serving another.  Pointing out even the tiniest of ways that the kids are helpful in the home encourages them to keep on keepin’ on in their service to our family and ultimately to the Lord!

An even bigger part of teaching them to serve as Jesus serves is attitude and that’s where I become the biggest influence.  If I constantly complain about how much work there is to do around the home or begrudgingly make a meal for a sick friend, what do my children learn about serving?  Certainly not how to serve in joy and gratitude!!  As the kids have gotten older and I’m noticing more the eyes that are always watching me, I’ve begun to regularly pray each morning that God would grant me the heart of a servant, that I would work as unto the Lord each day, even in the most menial tasks and that I would be joyful in it all.  Now, I’m the first to say that, sadly, it doesn’t always play out that way and I often grow impatient in serving everyone all day long.  But I’m striving for better, and trusting God’s grace to grow me in my ability to serve without complaint.

Last night following dinner, we were all in the backyard enjoying the cool weather and each other.  After about twenty minutes, I started to head inside to clean up the dinner dishes, knowing that I needed to get a head start before it was time to get everyone ready for bed.  Molly Kate said “Mommy, please stay outside and play!”  I told her I would love to but the kitchen needed to be cleaned and it was my job to get it done.  Without any prompting she replied, “Well then, I’m going to help you.”  I really hadn’t thought about teaching her to do dishes yet, but let me just tell you that she rinsed every dinner bowl and dish (we had soup last night!), then washed the dirty pots and utensils and even dried up the water that got on the counter!  It was such a huge help to me and while she worked on that, I was able to wipe down the table and sweep all the crumbs.  This is one more added bonus of teaching your children to serve…it makes having a large family much more manageable and frees Mommy up to do the fun stuff, like play ball in the backyard! I thanked her for so willingly serving us and wouldn’t you know, she asked to do it again today!

I snapped this picture of her cleaning the lunch dishes…notice that smile?  When she finished, I took her face in my hands and said “Molly Kate…one day, if God wills, you will be such a blessing to your husband and your family.  That you can joyfully clean the dishes and do it willingly without complaining will bless the heart of your husband and he will thank God for such a wife.”  Oh to see how much her smile widened!  Thank you God for the grace to be an example of service to the little eyes always watching me.

Love, love, love this precious girl!