Service

I spoke in church today about service....I actually get excited to talk, and it's been probably 5 years since I was last formally asked to speak. Service is easy enough to talk about, but its so broad. I figured the best thing to do was to share stories of people that have blessed my life, and have helped me understand the true meaning of serving. My life has been blessed by people doing seeming ordinary things and some extraordinary things for me and my family.

I talked about a friend of ours, Elise Johnson. When we moved to Delaware (I was pregnant with Tyler and she was expecting #2) and she invited us over for dinner that first Sunday we met. They were re-doing their kitchen and I was shocked, yet pleased that she didn't seem to care about the state of their kitchen. Not that it was messy, but "under construction." It left an impression on me that there really is no perfect time to serve, so just do it when you think of it. She and I ended up serving in a RS Presidency together and became close friends, and so were our kids who were born just days apart.

Another example that I ended up not sharing was when Michael and I took a leap of faith during grad school. For Physical Therapy, they have 5 different "rotations" where they work in different types of clinics. Most of his classmates were single and left the area/state to work those, often hoping to later be offered a job. Because of our family wanting to stay close, he worked 4 in the area, and just 1 out of state in Colorado. We had a dream of moving out there after grad school, so we decided to plan the rotation and hope that everything would work out for us all to go (it lasted 5 weeks). I called 6 months before to a local Bishop and told him our situation and wondered if he knew of anyone that had a basement apartment or something we could rent for that short time. He said he’d ask around and get back to me. He eventually called back and offered their home, and said XXX amount of money to pay for rent. It wasn't a separate apartment, but they had 2 extra rooms and both he and his wife worked during the day, so I would be able to be home alone with 18 month old Tyler (and pregnant). We went, stayed there, I cooked dinners (they loved this b/c they both worked), watched old Growing Pains reruns in the cool basement when Tyler napped, and became close to them. As new grandparents with their grandchildren in another state, they loved playing with Tyler. At the end of 5 weeks, we left them with the pre-arranged money, but they later told us they didn’t cash they check, it was their pleasure having us there. Our hearts are forever indebted to them. We’ve kept in touch with Christmas cards and occasional emails. We haven't made it to live in Colorado yet, but we are grateful for the Olsen Family for taking us in. With Hurricane Rita, she called me frantic telling me about her son and small family in Houston and wondered if they could come up to Austin to stay with us. My heart was overjoyed at the opportunity to serve her in return, even though I already had others coming to stay with me…I had to make it work. In the end, they went to Dallas, but I felt joy that she knew she could ask me.

Last that I'll mention is my desire to teach my children the importance of service. In our home, the consequence for injuring another is after a time out, they must peform an act of service for the person they injured. This is usually doing a job for them, or they can be creative. I want to keep the idea of serving as a regular dialogue with them so that they can better understand the importance of compassion. Trying to complement them for doing something without being asked, recognizing that they served brings them delight.

A way of service that I'd like to be better at, is recognizing when someone says, "no, i'm okay" realizing that they really do need something. I don't want to be pushy, but sometimes I've said no to someone and they pushed the issue enough that I allowed it and I was so grateful. I like to feel like I can handle things by myself, but for those that have MADE me let them serve me...I've been grateful for. I think that also means that I should consent and say yes if I'm asked.