A Heart to Serve

 It's been quite a week at our house. It began last weekend with hosting missionaries from Romania. We had known them as a married couple many years ago when my husband was still in school, but not seen them since. Now they are the parents of two teenagers. It was our pleasure to host their family in our home for a few days.

The day after they departed began 4 straight days for me spending every day, or most of it, at the church preparing for our church's 25th anniversary weekend, which just concluded yesterday and was a wonderful time of celebration. It began with breakfast for the two visiting pastors and their wives and ourselves and included a Saturday evening banquet, special services, a video presentation, and a barbecue lunch on Sunday. In no way did I accomplish any of this by myself - I was privileged to work with many wonderful and talented ladies. But I must say that it consumed all my time and energy and as wonderful as it was, I am thankful that it is over and I can now give my attention to things I have been neglecting, like my house, my laundry,  and my writing. Wednesday was shopping day, Thursday was spent setting up and decorating the gym for our banquet. Friday and Saturday were cooking and food preparation days, interspersed with trips to Walmart for things we needed.

As I reflected on the busyness of this past week, it could be characterized by one word: service. I would like to share with you a couple of thoughts I have in relation to serving the Lord:

1. Serving is rarely convenient. The timing of hosting a family in our home for the days immediately leading up to our anniversary weekend could've been better. I would not have chosen it that way, but as usual, the Lord had something He wanted me to learn from it. It was found one morning in my devotions: Romans 12:13 - "Distributing to the necessities of the saints, given to hospitality." The word "distributing" can also be translated "contributing." When I read this, my heart was pricked. Yes, it wasn't the most convenient time. But God had assigned me the task of contributing to the needs of His people by practicing hospitality. Missionaries who are constantly traveling have needs. They needed to homeschool their children, and we could provide a quiet place and the use of our internet service to accomplish that. They needed to do laundry. They needed some time to rest. What a privilege is ours as Christians to be used to minister to them! So many times I hear that it is "not convenient" for people to host missionaries in their homes or to have them in for a meal. I myself complain about it not being convenient for my schedule and responsibilities. But you know what? God changed my attitude. I can use inconvenience as an excuse not to practice hospitality, or I can determine that I am going to serve the saints of the Lord to the best of my ability and seek to be a blessing to them! In so doing, the blessing is really ours! And for those who have children at home, what is your attitude teaching them? Which leads me to the second thought:

2. As parents, we have a responsibility to train our children to have servants hearts.  It warmed my heart to see some of the children of our church pitching in with their parents to serve! We had a little girl doing jobs like putting salt & pepper shakers on tables, boys washing dishes, and young ladies serving food alongside their mother. These kids are learning by example to have a heart to serve. Raising kids with servants hearts does not just happen - they need to be trained. Our natural bent is to be self-centered. I am concerned about the lack of hospitality and having hearts to serve among our young people today. My husband and I did some things wrong as parents, but this was one thing we did right. All of our children, by God's grace, have grown into adults who have a heart to serve. We involved our kids in ministry from a very early age. They could set up chairs, put out hymnbooks, set tables, clean the church, fold bulletins, serve at fellowships. As they grew older, they helped in the nursery, played musical instruments, helped in VBS and Children's church, and a long list of other things. They gave up their bedrooms to visiting missionaries and guests. They have memories of being squished together onto a piano bench around the dining room table in order to have enough chairs to accommodate all our guests. I am not saying this to brag on them - I am saying that in order to have adults with servant hearts, you have to train children to cultivate hearts that want to serve. Our children were blessed beyond measure by the experiences they had in serving.  All of them are thankful for the opportunities they had in every imaginable aspect of service that have helped to equip them for their ministries today.

Of course, the best example we have of a servant is the Lord Jesus. He spent His whole earthly life in serving others. Joshua 22:5 exhorts us to show our love for the Lord by serving Him "with all your soul and all your might." What is your service saying about your love for Him?

Lovingly,
Kathi