C.J.'s service

I've been trying to bring up concepts of service as often as possible with the kids. Last week C.J. had had enough. "No More Talking About Service!!" Hoping I hadn't turned him off to the entire idea of doing service, I decided to change my vocabulary. I'll just talk about "being kind", "helping out", and other terms to talk about service incognito.

Two days after his outburst, C.J. greeted me with such excitement when I picked him up from day care.  "Mom, I did so much service today!" Carrie reported that yes, indeed, he had picked up and put away all the sleeping mats and blankets without even being asked, among other helpful things that day. I'm proud of him--he's getting it!

Joshua 24:14

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

A neighbor of mine turned 53 last year, and celebrated by doing 53 acts of service--in ONE day!! Wow. Talk about an amazing person and an amazing (and exhausting) day! She must have felt great, great joy that day. She certainly is inspiring!

I truly believe that the purpose of life is to learn to love others. To learn to serve others. To make loving and serving second nature to everything we do.

We all know the great commandments as taught by Christ: "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

And from the Book of Mormon: "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)

One of my favorite quotes is by Elder Orton: "Just as service is a natural consequence of love, so is love a natural consequence of service."

Barry and I both feel strongly about the importance of loving and serving others, and we can think of no greater gift to give our children than to instill in them a great love of service. We try to be examples, but we've decided to take it up a notch.

This year, and hopefully every year, the Grzybowski family is going to do at least one act of service as a family each week. Yup, there it is, in writing. Our goal. And if I have time, I'll try to report on how we're doing. Maybe our family can inspire another family or two!

Thanks to the latest snowstorm, our service today was obvious: shoveling our neighbors' walks/driveways. I think it was the first time this year Barry pulled out the snow blower, which was a big help.

Yes, the kids helped shovel the walks, but they also had fun playing in the snow. I only hope our neighbors don't mind that their beautiful, snow covered lawns have now been disturbed by 4 little feet and two little shovels.