Pastor Rick Warren advises, “To have a happy heart, you have to practice SERVICE and GENEROSITY every day.”
When I think of “service” Mother Teresa and her work comes to mind and the words of JFK echo, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Have service and generosity gone by the wayside? I don’t see many young girls scampering to the convents to serve as nuns. Nor do I see throngs of newly graduated college students eager to put their degree to work in a service industry like the Peace Corps.
Maybe we are all missing out on this key to happiness? Do we have to step out of the ordinary daily routines to be of service?
Jesus taught his disciples the walk from place to place to find ways to serve. He instructed his followers to observe and to love the world that was right in front of them. Guess that Jesus wrote about G-vites first!
Agreeing with Jesus (smart girl), I don’t think we have to go the extremes of joining a convent or traveling to a third world country to be of service. Opportunities present themselves in a myriad of ways each day.
Mother Teresa teaches us how to take this lofty ideal of service and generosity and bring it into our everyday lives. Her admonition is to take small gestures and do them with great love.
I would offer a key to remember: TKO. Approach each task being THOUGHTFUL, KIND, AND OBSERVANT thinking “how can I serve?”
Small gestures like opening a door for someone, letting someone with fewer groceries than you “cut” in line, or picking up something from the floor that someone has dropped can act as a service. Volunteering at a hospital, at your local school, or church can also provide the venues of service and generosity. Even a smile to a stranger can serve as an impetus for someone else’s good day
Besides helping others, service and generosity can be transforming for you.
Ghandi said that the best way to find yourself is to serve others. We need to get out of our own small world of “self” to broaden the scope of our lives seeing how we how we survive in cooperation and not competition.
Service and generosity also build gratitude, the fundamental building block of happiness. They take us to situations that challenge us to truly appreciate our own journey.
If you go through your days serving others with generosity you will give meaning to life itself. You are here on earth for a purpose. Service and generosity will fulfill your life’s destiny.
It’s a strange phenomenon that sometimes the more we give, the more we get. So go ahead and don’t be afraid to give what you have and watch the boomerang of happiness return to you.
How have you served lately?
