Serving and being served

     Every one of us, as human beings, have been served at some point in our lives. As a helpless infant, our survival depends on someone else caring for us and we certainly don't "pay" them for it. (Although, some parents would argue that a baby's smile or giggle or hug is a huge reward.) As we grow in size and increase in awareness, we increase in our ability to give service to others- anything from a toddler who lovingly gives a dandelion to his mother to a child who helps pick up and clean the house. Often the desire to do good things is rewarded by the satisfaction of having done something nice along with a little gratitude and/or praise. Unfortunately, not everyone continues to increase service to others as they increase in age. Just as bad, in my opinion, is that there are some who decrease in their willingness to accept service. We all smile at the child learning to eat with a utensil or tie shoes or ride a bike when they say, "I do it myself!" It's worthy of applause to be capable of being self-reliant and independent. However, there can be no service given if there is no-one willing to receive service. Whether it's the overburdened mother being offered a hand carrying her groceries or the proud old man, grumpy at being ill and needing care, it's important to be capable of receiving service. You can tip someone carrying your groceries and thereby not feel "beholden" for their service. You can figure the doctors and nurses are making a good wage thereby not feeling grateful for their tender attention. There are lots of ways to cheapen the service others can give us. It cheapens the service when we brush it off saying something like, "You really didn't have to do that" or " I was about to do that myself". However it's done, it demeans the person giving the service and hardens pride in the person refusing to humbly and gratefully accept the service.
     We cheapen God's service and love to us when we refuse to acknowledge His hand in all things. We may think that He really doesn't notice us, much less be involved in our life. We can think He's so much more important than we are that He doesn't take the time or make the effort to bless us on a daily basis. We may think He is better than we are so we don't deserve His attention. All of those attitudes cause us to neglect or avoid gratitude for His love and concern. We don't notice the beauty of the roses He places in front of us because we only see the painful thorns or we figure the roses aren't there to please us since everyone can see and smell them. We grumble about the rain without consideration for the life that exists only because of that moisture. We even hate the resistance of trials in our life without recognizing the strength and wisdom we gain as a result of it. We don't have to be falsely cheerful about pain or even masochistic or thinking ourselves as martyrs. What we have to do is trust and be grateful. We trust that the person offering to give us a hand is being kind without a hidden agenda. We trust our Father that He truly does want what is best for us even if we don't always understand. We swallow pride and cheerfully accept another person's loving service. We look at our life and the world around us with gratitude toward the Creator. It will help us to feel better. It really will.