{Serving As A Family}

 {This post was written based on our experiences in serving within our own family. We hope you can find some helpful tips or ideas in how to serve with your family.}

We get a lot of questions about how we teach service to our children. For us, it's been a natural progression of what's just normal for our family. My husband has a tremendously kind servant's heart and is always looking for ways to give back to friends, neighbor's and within our community. We truly feel that if you want your children to live life a certain way, you must model it for them. After all, we are our child's first teacher, right? So, honestly I feel we really don't go too out of our way to teach them to serve, it's just our way of life. We serve a lot as a family, anywhere from mission trips to Haiti {the hubby}, to canned food drives, packaging lunches for the homeless and actually sitting down and eating lunch with some homeless friends we've met {hubby, yet again}, the kids see us take action. It's become a habit that every time they see their "homeless friend" on the way to the grocery store that they buy a meal for him and his dog, my daughter won't let anyone forget about the dog. :) So, it's just become a way of life, a habit of you will.  Here are some pics of my hubby as he's served in Haiti.

{My hubby serving in Haiti. He was there to help rebuild a home for the young woman who runs the orphanage but as you can see, the kids found comfort in him being their "father.} 

 

 

{Building school desks for the kids}

As we're approaching the season of thanksgiving and Christmas, I wanted to offer a few ideas that have worked for us in the past and tips on getting started in serving with your family. I'll try to keep this short and to the point, so if you feel I've missed anything or have more questions please email us.

1) Be that positive role model for your kids. Show them how you want them to be. If you want them to have a heart and hands to serve, you must be ready to have that same heart. 

2) Discuss the importance of serving others.  Personally, we wanted our children to know that there were people in our city, just a few miles down the road or just a short drive from us who had no where to sleep at night.  We wanted them to know that there are children their age who won't get toys at Christmas because their mommy's and/ or daddy's don't have enough money to buy for them.  Talking openly about this as a family, has helped our children recognize the blessings they're been given; like a warm and cozy home to sleep in, toys to play with. Or should I say toys they never play with? ;)  Either way, they get it {most of the time} but because we talk about it.

3) Let your child have a say in how they want to serve. Maybe your schedule is busy with school, soccer practice, recitals, work, then of course, you'd want to choose something that won't require as much time or effort.  Maybe assembling "blessing bags" to keep in your car to hand out as you see a homeless friend in need.  Maybe you have more open time as a family and you could explore service projects like volunteering at a soup kitchen or mentoring kids at a local non-profit.  There are so many opportunities, simple or elaborate.  Choose what's right for your family.  This experience should be a joyful one, not a burden so make sure everyone is excited about what they choose. 

4) Get ready to get your hands dirty.  Get in there with your children, make crafts to bring to the local nursing home, make sandwiches and deliver them to the homeless.  As you begin to serve with your children, many questions will arise.  Be prepared.  And also, please remind your children that they may not get the response they're expecting from someone.  In every meal and blanket we've handed out over the past four years, we've heard nothing but great things from our homeless friends "thank you" "god bless you."  But this may not always be the case.  Continue to remind your child/ren that it's okay not to get a "thank you."  We serve as family because we love one another, not because we need something in return. A lesson that we all will have to deal with at some point in our lives. 

5) Debrief after your experience.  We're big on talking with our children about what they saw, reminding them to keep those friends in their daily prayers.  They may want to talk about how different people looked {especially when working with the homeless}.  Sorry, if that sounds horrible but it is something that comes up.  We are constantly reminding our children that when they hand our lunches to our homeless friends, they must stay with mommy and daddy and be safe. Sometimes we allow them to get out of the car and help distribute lunches that they made and other times, we simply drive up a block and my hubby distributes.  Our children have asked questions about the trash bags people sleep under, what happens when it rains and all of their blankets get wet, how do they stay warm, where do they brush their teeth, does Santa come to the children who live on the streets?  As you can see, it can be a heart wrenching talk but it really gets those little brains spinning with ideas on how to help. 

Well, that wasn't as short as I planned but helpful, I hope?  We're hoping to have some "giving challenges" in the coming days.  Please feel free to comment here if you have any comments or ideas you'd like to share.