Thursday Thoughts with Theresa: The Most Important Way to Train our Children to Serve

When our children already have everything. At a time when our children are growing up in a me­culture. When it is more natural for our children to think of themselves rather than somebody else. We must be intentional about teaching our children to think of others before themselves, to grasp a bigger picture of their world and to serve for the greater good of the world, in which God created them for.

But where do we start? Although we may love for our children to experience how people live in a third­world country, that is not piratical for the majority of us.

However, active service is within our reach. Here are three ways to train our children to serve right where they are:

3. Serve Along Side Community

At least once or twice a year, we try to organize or participate in a service project with friends or church members.

We have served at a soup kitchen, myself and all four children with me. The youngest, at two, three or four, were able to put salt and pepper shakers on the tables, set cups out and other small tasks. The older, at five, six or seven, were able to help with the small tasks and serve food. At one point, I had a baby in her infant seat, one on my back and two helping me serve the dessert!

We have joined a couple of families in putting on a pancake breakfast to raise money to buy a pig for a family in Guatemala.

We have invited friends to make bracelets for orphans in Russia, through Craft Hope.

We have invited friends to paint sun catchers with us and then took the sun catchers to a local nursing home, to brighten an elderly person's window and day.

2. Serve Your Community

As a family, throughout the summer, we have picked Thursdays to be our "Thoughtful" day or service day.

We have gone to a nearby park to enjoy a picnic and then pick up trash.

We've brought a plate of cookies to each of your surrounding neighbors. It can be as simple as writing a letter to a child we sponsor.

These small deeds make a big impact, not just on the receiving end, but on the heart of our own children!

However, serving others does not have to be an organized event or happen on a specific day.

1. Start with Family

Serving starts with family, right in our home, and practiced everyday.

We see it when a child holds the door for those of us behind him. We see it when the youngest

needs her blankie and one of her siblings jumps up to get it for her. We see it when one chooses to use some birthday money to surprise his siblings with ice cream at the park. We see it in thoughtful words.

These are the kinds of thoughtful or "service" acts our children may already be doing! And these are the things we can encourage and tangibly train, if our children are not already doing them.
So if you find yourself dumb­founded over ways to involve your children in serving others, look closer rather than so far out of reach.

Because we miss the point when we serve others outside the home, but remain self­serving within the home. It must start right here.

The service our children practice within their homes will manifest itself within our world.

A child who holds the door for his siblings will hold the door for a stranger. A child who stops what he is doing to help his sister, will stop what he is doing to help someone in need. A child who spends birthday money to surprise his family with ice cream cones learns how it feels to be generous with his money. A child who puts thoughtful words to paper will bless many.

So, take heart sweet mamas. Training our children to serve is within our reach. We can seek a couple of larger service projects to involve our children in each year, but let's not overlook all the ways we can train our children to serve everyday. You're probably already doing them! 

- Theresa Miller, MOPS Mom



Theresa is a wife and mother of four children (3, 5, 7, and 9), who are embarking on their first year of homeschooling. Theresa has been involved in Sheridan MOPS for the last 9 ½ years, serving in multiple leadership positions, including Day MOPS Coordinator in 2007-2008. She took one year off, then started the Sheridan Evening MOPS group in September 2009. Theresa has published an article with MOPS International MOMSnext Ezine, in addition to other on-line publications. You can find Theresa encouraging mothers on her blog, Heavenly Glimpses.

Thursday Thoughts With Theresa: 15 Minutes of Sight

Days before, family had come to town to visit him–to say their good­byes, as he laid there dying. His long lanky shriveled body lay under the blankets of his twin electronic bed. He refused food, water or an I.V. for nourishment. He said he was ready. That seemed to give others a sense of peace, but not me. Ready? What does that mean for a man of little faith?

I tried to ignore it and to accept that this was the cycle of life and it was just his time. I told myself that his own sons knew better than I–the hormonal granddaughter­in­law, growing a baby in her womb, who had only met this man a few years before. I hadn't been very comfortable around the man either, the man who grumbled over matters rather than offering his wisdom and blessing.

I tried but days later, one Saturday morning, I felt overwhelmingly compelled to go. I gave every excuse under the sun not to. Why would I go without my husband and small child? What would I say? It was a completely foreign thought and well out of my comfort zone.
 And so I decided to go exercise instead–to try to rationalize those thoughts away.

Yet when I got to the gym, I could not so much as run in place without feeling the need to get somewhere. I was antsy. I was driven. I was compelled to go.

Within five minutes of arriving at the gym, I was on my way out the door again and driving to the nursing home that housed my grandfather­in­law.

I walked in. He look surprised. He could not speak well anymore, dying of dehydration. I can't remember my words exactly, but I remember asking how he was and if he was ready. He nodded his head, yes.

I felt a flood coming and so I quickly asked if he believed. He said, just above a whisper, "Sort of."

I remember that wasn't enough for me and he attempted to change the subject with the little he could utter and asked if his son, my father­in­law, made it off okay, back home...but the rain poured just then and I said I was sorry and I brought the topic right back to where I had left off–that I needed him to believe because I wanted to see him again in heaven. I sniffled and caught my breath.

And I felt an overwhelming amount of love for the man laying there. I wiped my tears and said I wanted to hold his hand, but I was fighting a cold that I didn't want to give him.

He held his hand out anyway, so I took his warm hand in mine and I didn't know what to say next so I didn't say anything. I just held his hand. And then I said I should probably go.

He looked me in the eye and whispered, "Thank you."

I smiled and I didn't want to leave, but I knew it was time. And so I released his hand and he whispered again, "Thank you."

I left his room and went straight to the nurses station and asked for some hand sanitizer because I was fighting a cold. Then I walked right back to his room. He looked surprised.

I took his hand, the hand I had held, and rubbed the sanitizer over it. Then he lifted his other hand and so I rubbed sanitizer on that hand, too. I looked at him again and said good­bye.

He looked me in the eye and most sincerely whispered for the third time, "Thank you."
 I walked away, then stopped at the door, turned and waved. He lifted a hand and waved back. Then I went home, walked straight into my husband's arms and wept.
 I told him where I had been and I wept because I didn't feel like I had done enough. 
He said I did more than I knew.

I had prayed on my way to the nursing home that I would see my husband's grandfather through Jesus' eyes and not my own. And what I saw had little to do with physical eyes at all. When I left, I felt inseparable. Our family was heading out of town the next day and I didn't want to go. I didn't want to miss a day to be there with him.

That was the last day I saw him and I am told, the last day he had been able to utter any words.

He died the following Tuesday night and I don't know what happened between Saturday and Tuesday, but I have a hunch that the man I saw in those fifteen minutes saw for the first time, a glimmer of light.

I'll never know for sure this side of heaven if my offering was enough, but it wasn't up to me to do or be enough. It was up to me to simply show up. And the rest, up to Jesus.

It's Jesus who makes the blind see and the lost found. 
And it's Jesus who makes our small offerings–even fifteen minutes worth–enough.

- Theresa Miller, MOPS Mom

Theresa is a wife and mother of four children (3, 5, 7, and 9), who are embarking on their first year of homeschooling. Theresa has been involved in Sheridan MOPS for the last 9 ½ years, serving in multiple leadership positions, including Day MOPS Coordinator in 2007-2008. She took one year off, then started the Sheridan Evening MOPS group in September 2009. Theresa has published an article with MOPS International MOMSnext Ezine, in addition to other on-line publications. You can find Theresa encouraging mothers on her blog, Heavenly Glimpses.

The Art of Giving and Gleaning

Spring is upon us… or at least it is coming soon. With the change in weather, we are all itching to get some cleaning, purging, and organizing done. 

On Wednesday morning, February 26th, MOPS will help us do just that with a clothing exchange! Bring your gently used children’s clothes to share and exchange for “new to you” clothes for your growing kids!

This exchange reminds me of the Biblical concept of gleaning.

According to Merriam-Webster, to glean is:

to gather grain or other material that is left after the main crop has been gathered.

In Leviticus, God gave His people special instructions to care for the needy in their communities:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:9-10

We can find an excellent example of this in the book of Ruth. Ruth takes advantage of this provision (gleaning) to provide for herself and her mother-in-law. Boaz, who allowed Ruth to glean in his field, greatly blessed Ruth and Naomi by obeying God’s command. (Read Ruth 2 for deeper study).

It got me thinking:

How can we honor this concept in our culture today?

We live in a get-as-much-as-you-can society. Even our poor are richer than the average poor worldwide. Aside from the political or sometimes justified misgivings about providing for the poor, we are still commanded to do so (Isaiah 10:1-3)

I fully support taking time off for missions trips and serving inner-city soup kitchens. I think Christ-followers should be eager to do these ministries as well.

Unfortunately, I think many of us give in a “big” way, then check it off our lists. I believe God wants us to incorporate giving, which is part of our worship of him, into our daily lives.

We need to recognize the art of giving as you go. There is a time and place for grand gestures. However, the practice of giving-so-others-can-glean places an emphasis on the simple letting-go of our cash, time, or space.

Join us here throughout the week to explore some practical ways to “leave” our cash, time, and space, so others can glean from them. (Check out Part 2 on Friday!)

- Becky Rosty, MOPS Mom

www.beckyrosty.wordpress.com

Becky Rosty leads a college ministry with her husband in the shadow of the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming. She loves sunshine and s'mores and feels a personal responsibility to bring both to the people in her life.

Becky is also the future-mama to 3: twins due in July 2014, and a precious gift from South Africa, to arrive in 2015. For now she enjoys playing with her mini-golden doodle, Mr. Darcy.

She delights in her identity as a failure saved by Jesus' grace. She is also a singer/songwriter, hiker, home-maker, trip-taker, and scone-baker.

Becky has written several original Bible-studies and is passionate about speaking truth in love to young women. To book Becky for speaking engagements, contact via email: beckyrosty@gmail.com.