Eavesdropping

The other day I was eavesdropping on a conversation that my girls were having about heaven. It was too cute to listen to them discussing a topic that for me is so a deep and mind boggling, and yet their simplistic little conversation was tackling it. Cheyanne was asking Emme about whether she wanted to go to heaven. After a bit of back and forth conversation about wondering whether teddy and woof woof could come along they decided that they would like to go to heaven. Cheyanne told Emme that she wanted to go to heaven because she would get to see daddy's grandma that was in heaven, and that daddy's grandma was a real nice lady. She made daddy yummy food and played games with him, and daddy really loved her. They also came to the conclusion that they could see Josiah if they went to heaven. After discussing this back and forth for awhile Cheyanne said that Josiah was in heaven all alone but that actually he wasn't and that daddy's grandma was looking after Josiah because she was such a nice lady.

It's a New Year!!

It's a New Year, and I am already behind, lol. I feel like the last few blogs I have written have all been a bit behind. Oh well, that is an accurate reflection of my life, I usually feel like I am behind and am trying to get caught up. If I could have one superpower it would be the ability to freeze time, hahaha. I think all moms should be given this power at the birth of their first child. Anyways, that's a total transgression and not at all what I want to blog about.

I have never been much of a New Year's Resolution person, but the last few years I have really felt that it was important to slow down and reflect with the passing of each year. New Year's for me has become a day when I make sure that I set aside some time to look back on the last year and see if the way I lived my life matched what I said was important to me, and the direction God has for me in my life. This year as I looked back there were many things that stood out as highlights and blessings in our lives. There were also many things that I looked at and know that I want to improve or change. One of the things that I have decided to focus on this next year stemmed from a blog that I wrote in September. It was titled If I can justify it that makes it right....right? (to read that blog click on the title). Servant hood is something that I believe is so important and yet is often the first thing that we cut out when we feel life is too busy. The past few years I have felt like I am stretched too thin and just too busy, but I know that just because I can justify myself doesn't mean that it is right for me to look the other way when someone is in need of being served. Ever since the sermon that inspired my previous blog I have started really paying attention to the people in my life that are wonderful examples of a servant heart. My husband is one of these people, he is such an incredible example to me and the way that he demonstrates his love through service, his servant heart is one of the key reasons I feel so blessed. I was at a ladies brunch this past December, and as we went around the circle telling one another about our lives and what we were doing I was struck by how almost all of the women were involved in some type of sacrificial service. It was quite inspirational. Because of these and many other examples in my life I have decided to create a list of people who to me, display a servant heart. I will continue to add people to this list as the year goes on, and my goal is to observe these people, to look at what characterizes their service, and to follow their example. I hope that by doing this I will work more diligently at becoming like these people that I admire so much.

One of the other things that I have noticed about servant hearted people is that they don't ever sit back and look at all they are doing and say "well I am doing enough, look at me." These people are like chameleons, they often blend into the background, they often miss getting the praise, and yet they are indispensable to those they are serving. I am amazed at how they continually recognize the opportunities God is giving them to serve. After writing my previous blog I was visiting with a lady. This lady is the woman that, as I was writing my previous blog, I was visualizing in my head as one of the most beautiful examples of a servant heart. She is truly an inspiration to me and she has blessed me and many others in my extended family because of her servant heart. In our conversation we were talking about this situation where she had seized the opportunity to serve a young girl whom she barely knew. As I was talking with her she mentioned how when the situation came up she had just read my blog about service and felt that she really needed to help this girl. When I wrote the blog I wanted to inspire people like me, I wanted to prompt those of us who maybe aren't servant hearted to start looking at the world in a different way, and yet this wonderful example of a servant heart had been inspired, all I could think was, but you do so much for everyone already, how could you feel the need to do more? Later that night I was telling Michael about this conversation and we were discussing it, well I was discussing it and he was trying hard to listen to me instead of falling asleep, lol, and I came to the conclusion that when you have a servant heart you really never stop and say, "no God, I am doing enough right now, I am going to let someone else take care of this one." Instead you say, "okay God, I am busy, but I know that you have placed this need in my life so I know that you are asking me to trust you and serve in this way." I think most of us serve in some way or another, we serve our families, we maybe help in the nursery at church, but only the truly servant hearted serve when it hurts, serve when they are already doing enough, serve when they can justify not.

So, as this New Year begins I am dedicating it to service. One of my tools to help me make service a priority in my life is my lists. I have created two lists, one, as I have already mentioned, is dedicated to the people whose example I want to be like. I plan to watch how they manage their time and resources to enable them to do so much for so many. My other list is dedicated to ways I can serve. This list is divided into two parts, one is for now, ways that I can serve the people in my life now, the other is for the future. In my stage of life I have discovered that there many things that I would like to do for young moms that aren't feasible because of the demands of my own family, however, my family will only be this young for a stage, when that stage passes, I want to make sure that I don't forget to serve in these areas. Of course if I make these goals, these lists, and don't seize the opportunity to serve when it is presented to me I have failed, so the most important step is to take action. I believe that the way I can chart my progress is to look at the example of this amazing lady in my life. I will know that my heart is being transformed into that of a servant when I don't look for the praise when I serve, and when I don't ignore the needs around me because I am too busy. So here is to a New Year, to a new goal, and to a challenge that I believe may take me a lifetime to complete, but will hopefully show great progress in 2011.