A member of the RS Pres. called me yesterday and asked me to give a service experience. "Sure, no problem." I didn't think twice about it. Then, when I started trying to nail down the experience I struggled so much. All of these acts of service were so sacred, emotional, and plentiful. I knew I would cry through many of them. And then deciding which one to tell seemed impossible.
So as I sat listening to each of the four other sisters cry through their experiences with service as they too tried to nail down just one ...or half a dozen rather I really gained a testimony of so many acts of service. Here's some of it.
1. Never feel embarrassed about serving others. I so often don't b/c I'm afraid of the imperfections or I'm not confident that it will be wanted.
2. Service touches our lives so deeply that I think a lot of who we become rides on giving and recieving.
3. Lynne's advice to me a long time ago is still true. Nobody needs to feel lonely or friendless because there are always people to serve.
4. No matter what your situation is(sunflower, you are also a very good example to me of this)you can find a way to serve. I am embarrassed to admit that I often don't serve because it seems to hard to pile my kids in and out of the car to deliever a meal or whatever but I could do it. Also, it doesn't have to be a meal. Maybe I don't sign up for the meal but I send a card or email or make a phone call.
I feel so much love for people and I'm guilty of neglect. I want to try harder! I'd love to hear about your experiences with service and being served. I'm curious to find out if unwanted service occurs very often to those with open hearts.
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Yellow Tulip, Ivy-Lilac, Sunflower, and Wysteria
Memory of the Moment
So...a bit of the first Sunday like pause there, I'll go ahead and share a Christmas memory. PLEASE feel free to replace mine anytime...
I loved the Christmas markets! I drive often on one particular road here in town where one business is building these tiny little cabins that are about 8 ft by 6 ft. Each time I pass them, I am reminded of the little wooden Christmas cabins that sold Gauffres with powdered sugar or nutella and Santons. Two I remember were in St. Germain-En-Laye and at La Defense. I can picture walking through the marche' and it was lightly snowing, lights were glittering from the little cabins. My girls now "carefully play" with the Santons I brought home. Joyeux Noel ladies...
I loved the Christmas markets! I drive often on one particular road here in town where one business is building these tiny little cabins that are about 8 ft by 6 ft. Each time I pass them, I am reminded of the little wooden Christmas cabins that sold Gauffres with powdered sugar or nutella and Santons. Two I remember were in St. Germain-En-Laye and at La Defense. I can picture walking through the marche' and it was lightly snowing, lights were glittering from the little cabins. My girls now "carefully play" with the Santons I brought home. Joyeux Noel ladies...
Contributors
Yellow Tulip
A mom following the ebb of the tide, dipping my feet into art, music, history, writing, cooking, teaching, composing, running, traveling, collecting moments and much more.
Ivy-Lilac
I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and Israelite.
Sunflower
A mother of three, a simultaneous student and teacher, a sister, a friend, and most of all a daughter of God. Appreciative of the connections and relationships I have, seeking to improve each of them daily.
Wysteria
Single, Feminist, Altruist, Perpetual Student and Teacher, Writer, Photographer, Artist, and World Traveler. Trying to unite my cultures with others--and finding my place in this world as a Daughter of God.
3 comments:
It's an interesting post, especially that for most of us (well, myself until recent distance from the church)...service really focused around our church attendance. At least, that's been my experience.
Now that I am not really active in that aspect, it doesn't mean my desire to serve is any less, it just means I have to start searching for it in different ways.
And I think that no matter what, there has to be a way for it not to seem like a project. I have seen my sister go through this this month. For some reason her visiting/home teachers are way more adamant about contacting her then the ones that were assigned to me. But the sister actually said, "Well, we are all trying to get the visiting teaching done this month, so we really need to come and see you."The poor girl, I felt bad for her when April said that she NEVER wanted to be seen. I remember that feeling on the other end of that phone call on my mission. And now, I understand it from the inactive person's point of view. Life is funny.
Anyway, obviously April doesn't want to be anyone's project. No one does, but I really wonder how much we would do if we weren't assigned to do it. Who would we reach out to if we didn't have a "numbers" or an "obligation" hanging over our heads. This is more a question that I have been thinking about myself, because I have no one "assigned" to me, and I am not really part of the Relief Society right now, so no one asking me to help with dinners or anything. It doesn't mean my heart is any less wanting to do it, I just don't know how! I feel service-stunted!
That's a goal this summer I guess, wether I believe in the gospel or not, I am still back to the basics of figuring out faith, hope and charity.
Thanks for your post Amber. You've definitely lived a life of service, that for sure. I look at all you do for others, all you do for your family, all you give up, the amount of faith you show, the attitude with which you do it. It's been an example to me for a long time.
When I was pregnant with Preston and really struggling, Steven gave me a blessing in which I was told that I was surrounded by ward members, friends and family that were there to support and help me. In fact, I was told that was the very reason we'd ended up back in America, because God knew I'd need that. I knew that, I felt that. The hardest thing for me was allowing people to do what they were there to do. After that blessing, I decided to open myself up to the help so many people had been so willing to give me, but hadn't been able to because of my independence and I suppose pride.
Of course it will surprise no one to hear that the amount of love and support I received from those around me literally lifted me through a very hard and trying time. And, apart from all the help I received in so many ways, I felt a love and sincere concern from others that has developed into friendships I now treasure.
God speaks to us all in ways we listen. I like to think that these experiences have helped fine tune my own sensitivity to the needs of others, if even just a little bit.
From my experience, I can't think of a time when I have been served that they have not lifted me by even just little notes. Even just a little thought, they didn't have to do it, but, they did.
I am trying to act on the little thoughts of things I can do for others more and not put them off. I'm especially working on writing more thank you notes. It's the unexpected that really puts magic in, even the seemingly "little" things. My sister Mich has a quote that says something like Don't miss the small things because you'll realize one day that they were the big things. I don't do it justice but, you get the idea I hope.
Last year Andrea McCormack a girl from my ward bought flowers for me and Mich brought them to the hospital. Each flower represented someone, my daughters, her, my visiting teacher that was helping keep the house in order, etc. It was a beautiful reminder of these people.
Since I read your post Tulip, I've been thinking about the verse in Matt 25, I think it's 40 because the cheesy line is "Do it for shorty".
This verse talks about how as we serve others we are actually serving Him. I looked at it in a new way today thanks to you. When we do something kind and loving for someone else, it not only sends a message to them that we care about them but, that God cares about them. Back to the flowers, things like that were such a comfort to me in the weeks and months after Angela's birth.
They were witnesses of love to me and I was comforted by them.
Wysteria, I'm sorry about your sister's experience with her visiting teachers.
I think if we can get beyond the duties in the church and be like Akeelah and the Bee, gotta see that show if you haven't, there are beautiful mysteries to discover. Not doing the duty of visiting teaching just because it's a duty, but seeing them as your friends that even if you don't know them well at first, you get to know them, their likes and dislikes, their background, when there sick, even if it's just a little cold, take them some soup, try to find ways to lighten their daily load once in a while instead of waiting to do something big and spectacular.
So, I've been rambling but, it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. I just try to act on the little nice thoughts about doing this or that for someone instead of the not so nice thoughts. I try to stick those in my garbage disposal!
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