The Year So Far - A Thought on Serving

So how has the year been so far? Has it been all that I have expected? No. Has it completely disappointed me? No. But it is going entirely too fast! Tony leaves next month to begin his deployment and we are trying to spend as much time together as we can and it will never be enough. Joss is keenly aware of what is happening and prays every night that her dad will be safe and is already sad that he will not be here for our summer vacation, Christmas, or her next birthday. But we try to stay positive about it and I know that God will sustain us during this time. Hopefully we will look back on it as a time that brought us all closer together and she and I will have special mother/daughter memories from this summer.

As I've mentioned before Tony and I discuss every year how this will be the year that we will make sure we are volunteering and helping those in need. Unfortunately we never follow through with that like we would like to. We want our lives to be a blessing to others and we want our children to grow up knowing that there are others who are not as blessed as us, and that we should help them as much as we can. We vow every year to take one holiday and skip the big family dinner and spend it serving in a soup kitchen, and we always have the intention to work at the food bank on a regular basis. Unfortunately we are not starting this year out very well either as we have not even inquired about helping at the food bank.

However we do often give some of our belongings to what we feel are worthy charities and sometimes even household items we no longer have a use for. It always makes us feel good that we are helping others. That is until I read this post by Jenny Simmons from Addison Road: http://www.inspiredtoaction.com/?p=351#more-351. Don't read it unless you want to feel convicted and are ready to go through your closet to find some nice things to bless others with. It made me think of what I would feel if I were in the situation of having to ask for handouts. Would I want the oldest, out of date and most worn clothing? Definitely not as clothing is something I love to buy and have new versions of quite often. It made me stop and rethink what I have considered as being helpful in the past. It made me redefine that definiton all together!