|
Service With A Smile
by Kristi Peifer When I was younger, the whole world seemed stretched out in front of mea virtual wide open sea of opportunity. I thrived on the idea that I could accomplish anything I wanted to accomplish. My favorite verse as a teen was Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Everything. That sounded pretty good! As I've gotten a bit older, reality has started to set in. Sure, there's things I can accomplish, but they probably won't be as grand and glorious as the things I imagined I could do when I was a teenager. Let's see. Become one of the elite at NASA? Nope. Win a Pulitzer Prize? No again. Headline a Broadway show? Nope, nada, zilch. So what HAVE I accomplished, anyway? To quote Beth Moore in her fabulous Bible study, Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman, "Think about it, Sister. Couldn't the craving to do something great keep us from doing something good?" Oh. Am I so busy dreaming of the someday that I might write the great American novel that I resent doing something a little less glamorous but a whole lot more necessary in the meanwhile? Uh, guilty as charged. I can't say that I look forward to washing dishes and cooking meals, but I do it anyway, out of duty. Duty? In Ephesians 6:7 it says, "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men." Uh oh. Would I want to serve God a piping hot meal of grumbling? No, I sure wouldn't. I shouldn't do it to my family, either. I should serve them as if I were serving the Lord himself! Moore reminds us, "Every one of us who embraces the glory of God as our purpose will end up doing great things precisely because we do God-things. His holy hand resting on the least act renders the ordinary extraordinary. Spooning soup into the mouth of the weak or manning the nursery so a tired mom can go to church are acts of high worship when offered in the name of Christ." Be encouraged! Everything we do to the glory of God is a great thing! Even cleaning toilets and changing diapers? Especially those things. We don't have to be the very best at anythingwe have only to give our best for the Lord in everything that we do. Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me." From now on, my family is getting dinner service with a smile. Copyright Kristi Peifer, 2011. I am a pastor's wife, the mother of two special needs children, a performer, and a lover of all things funny. My sincerest desires are to glorify Jesus Christ and to make someone laugh--preferably at the same time. Visit me at www.neverkissatoaster.blogspot.com Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |