The Heart of a Servant
I had to have a little outpatient surgery today. Nothing major, but it would lay me up for a day.
As a wife and mother, I panicked. Not because I worried about who would take care of my family; I worried about what my house would look like with me out of commission! But a funny thing happened… my family stepped up to the plate. My husband finished the laundry and put all the clothes away. Sure, later in the day I had to go back and put them all in the right place, but somehow that wasn’t so bad. His heart was in the right place.
And my five year old made dinner for me… a bowl of Cheerios (no milk). I started to get up for something to drink, and she said, “No, Mommy. I’m your servant tonight.” So there I sat, eating dry Cheerios and drinking water from a sippy cup… and loving every minute of it.
And it got me to thinking. In the secular world, the word “servant” has a negative connotation to it. Somehow, we feel it is demeaning to serve others. We are above that, we should be served. But as Christians, serving can be the highest form of honoring God. In fact, when we serve others, we are directly serving God!
In I Samuel, we learn that Samuel was Eli’s helper. But it is noted that by serving Eli, he is serving a higher power:
Elkanah and Hannah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.
I Samuel 2:11
When we, as Christians, serve others, we turn the secular world upside down. While the world screams to be served, we know that our duty is to serve those around us. In Matthew, Jesus teaches the disciples a valuable lesson, that to be good, effective leaders, they must first learn how to serve.
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.
Matthew 20:25-26
So be honored to serve, to have the “Heart of a Servant.” For in that service, you are serving God!
July 18th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Hope your surgery went well Linda.
Oh yes. If you want to great in God ’s kingdom, gotta to be a servant of all.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:14 am
My surgery went fine, thanks for asking. We should be up and running much more smoothly, too. We have had a lot of problems with the blog, but the company has put in all new software, so we are going full speed!
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
[...] to reference an earlier blog, having the heart of a servant will increase your beauty ten-fold (The Heart of a Servant). Nothing shines brighter to our Heavenly Father as one who humbly [...]