Thank you, Kristin

Something interesting happened the other day, and at the risk of my friends being afraid to relate to me for fear our interaction end up on the blog, I’m going to tell you about it.

My oldest son had a game yesterday afternoon. It was an away game, and we had to travel about 20 miles to get to the other school - this requiring that I pick my younger children up early from school. Normally, they would be fine with it, but both of them had subjects yesterday afternoon that they did not want to miss, so our only option was to find a willing friend to care for them after school.

Mia chose her BFF, and so my husband called and made all the arrangements. J.J. chose his buddy, the E-man, and I called his mother (who is my buddy) to see if she minded having J.J. for a couple of hours.

After I asked her over the phone, she responded with the most interesting thing. She said, “Oh that would be fine. Thank you for calling and asking.”

Now you may not see what I see in those two sentences, but for a moment I felt so blessed. Here I was, asking for a favor that in some way inconveniences my friend, and she THANKED me for the opportunity.

I want to be the kind of person who is TRULY THANKFUL for the chance to serve, the opportunity to be inconvenienced in order to make another person feel cared for. It is deeply profound if you think about it, because even as Christians we know that serving another person is what Christ modeled for us, but how often is it a forced behavior and not an involuntary outflow of a Christ-filled heart?

I understand that loving and serving and being inconvenienced is sometimes hard, and I even know that it is a choice to pursue such a path. But it’s not just good for the world to serve, it is good for me. I am being shaped and matured every time I dare to do it.

I want to be thankful for the heart that is being made inside me as I serve the world outside me.