Service

I don't think you can ever do too much service.

I would like to do more service and I would very much like my children to be a part of it.  But, I want to make sure that they love it and feel like they want to be a part of it.  So many times I think that people and maybe teenagers more than adults feel service  to be a drudgery.  I wish this weren't the case.  Although helping kids ENJOY service is a bigger job for the parent or mentor intellectually, I feel it is definitely worth it a thousand times over.  It will pay off in dividends and in unquantifiable ways for years and generations to come.  There are some that feel that we just tell our kids and force them if needed to do the right things rather than doing the harder and more wise job of helping our kids to understand and eventually love doing work and service.

I learned from a very wise set of parents.  They showed me by so many many actions and in just as important words that matched their actions to love service.  First they showed this to me by showing me, and telling my that they loved me.  They genuinely loved to be with me.  My parents never made excuses of reasons why to leave and be gone excessively doing their own things.  They genuinely loved being with me and my brothers and sister.  We were their world.  This is not to say that they did not have interests of their own or did not continue to cultivate their own interests.  It is to say that they used much wisdom and moderation at different times in their lives and ours as their children in that cultivation of their interests.

My parents never spoke of their extreme service, we, as their children, saw and lived their service. We still see evidence in sweetness of friends and family members who have been touched and had their lives changed by my parents service to them.  It is like a treasure trove that will never be fully plumbed here on this earth.  It is a continual box to open with new stories and old stories that continue to unfold in quiet, steady, power and strength in what they do for us as their children and others.  I will never be able to fully tell them how much I appreciate and am in awe of their quite yet powerful strength they exude.  It is like a continual shower of joy and love and comfort that I feel from them just in thinking of them.  I have not come even close to what they have done, but the good thing is that I still have time.

Tonight the kids and I delivered specialty scrumptious bread to 2 people in our neighborhood that we love and admire.  We knew of their need for others to reach out and show them love and compassion. It was a wonderful thing to go together and share this time in a small thing of delivering bread and hugs to our friends that will hopefully continue in the small rippling effect.  I hope that we can continue in our service together as a family.