Teach them to serve

Teach Your Children To Serve Others

Over the years our family has served others in various ways. Sometimes it has been only me, heading over to the church to provide childcare for the moms attending the weekly Bible study or Wednesday night service. At other times it has been my husband and I together, assisting the leaders for our couples class by helping lead discussions or even filling in for them when they could not make it to a class. We have even served as a family by preparing meals for foster care families, just to ease the dinnertime burden once or twice a month. As moms, we all know how  stressful it can be at times just to get a simple meal on the table!

As we march forward into the fall season and upcoming holidays I have been thinking of things our family could do together to serve others. Here are a few ideas I have come up with, and I hope they will be helpful to you!

• Invite a neighborhood family, or family from church, over to enjoy dinner in your home.
• Deliver homemade pumpkin bread to a neighborhood shut-in.  Stay and visit a while!
• Take the entire family to an elderly neighbor’s home and rake the leaves in his yard. This will save him time looking for someone to do the job, as well as save money he likely needs for other things!
• Find out if there is needy family in your church and provide Thanksgiving dinner or a Christmas gift for the family that they might not receive otherwise.
• Sponsor a child
• Choose one day per week to run errands for a pregnant woman or new mom. She will thank you for it!
• Wash the dishes for your teenage son, even though it is his job to do each day.
• Walk the dog for your daughter.
• Clean out the air conditioning filter for your husband.
• Deliver blankets to a homeless shelter in your area.
• Give a needy family a ‘pounding’, which simply means you gather a group of folks together and each person provides a pound of food. Our church family did this for us when my husband was in college. Not only did it lift a financial burden, it has been a wonderful example of Christ’s love that I have carried with me for nearly 18 years!

Do you have specific ways in which you like to serve others?  Please share them with us!

 

Wendy WoernerWendy is a homeschooling mama to five who loves to encourage others along the homeschooling journey. She also considers herself a ‘foodie’ and is always ready to try a new recipe in the kitchen. You will find Wendy writing about homeschooling, food, and other life events on her blog, Following in His Footsteps. She has also recently begun a new venture with Southern Test Kitchen. Be sure to visit and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter, too!