Serving together

Kyle and I have been examining our parenting (or lack thereof) and we were convicted that we need to be more intentional with our kids.  One of the many things that we hope to teach our children is to put others before yourself.  We realized that we were doing a very poor job at this.  We live in a very "ME" centered society where so many people are hurting and therefore get forgotten.  I am sharing this not to "toot our own horn", but to bring light to one way to put "feet to your faith."   We thought, "how will we be able to teach our children to serve, when we don't?"  So, that brought about this weekend's family outing.  Friday night following our Chick-fil-A dinner we went to Target a loaded up on all sorts of goodies for the residents of an assisted living facility.

Saturday morning we delivered all of our goodies and visited with the sweet people.  All the residents loved Clay and Avery and one man even took his teeth out for them.  They were mesmerized that he could actually take his teeth out (it was hilarious!).  We visited with one lady who just lost her husband and had to move.  She shared with us that she was having a hard time coping.  I could've cried.  I have been thinking about her all day.  I am certain that we were blessed far beyond the sweet folks there.  We hopefully taught our children a lesson in serving, but more importantly, life was put into perspective for Kyle and I.  It is truly better to give than to receive... a lesson that we were taught and maybe our children were too.

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."  I Peter 4:10

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  John 13:13