Are you Giving Today?

#Black Friday #Cyber Monday. Now #Giving Tuesday?

At this point, I think I’ve had enough of marketing strategies. #GivingTuesday is trending today on Twitter.

But when will we move from talking to doing?

When will we move from Facebook LIKING to LIVING, from TWEETING to MEETING service opportunities as a way of life?

When will we move from giving one day because a creative marketer has made it official by giving the day a name?

I do not knock the efforts or giving that will be done today. In fact, if it raises awareness and people that have never given before are compelled to give, then the efforts would have been a success.

Wouldn’t we get the maximum impact though if we were to tell and show how to live a lifestyle of giving?

What would it look like if we each lived a life of service to others?

I am a servant to my family, friends and community. There are times when someone will ask something of me and say “oh, I know you’re busy so maybe you can’t”. And I have to clarify for them that while I am busy, if the request aligns with my calling, then I’m not busy. I use my time wisely in service to those whom I’ve been called to serve. My life is a life of service. From the time I awake, I am serving my children, serving my husband, serving women in my care, serving at church, serving at my children’s school and the list goes on.

{Let me just stick a pin here and say in order to serve it is critical to exercise self care which I’ve gotten better at over the last few years. I’ll come back to that in a future post.}

When I call myself a servant, I think it annoys my husband. He says “Ok. Good for you but I’m nobody’s servant” (yet he serves tirelessly too). I think our culture has come to view the term servant as demeaning. I think the culture has come to view servant as having the same connotation as subservient. They are far from the same. Today’s culture says, “Get Mine” “Me, Myself and I” “Keep Calm It’s All About Me”

#Me is even one of the most frequently used hashtags.

Jesus said in Matthew 20:25-28, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions exercise authority over them.  It will not be like this among you! But whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be most prominent among you must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Oh how it lightens life’s heavy load when we serve one another. Life is made brighter when another comes alongside us, in a demonstration of love and compassion to serve just because it’s the right thing to do expecting nothing in return.

Life presents endless opportunities to serve. Your eyes and ears have to be open and not be so inundated in your our circumstance and situation or else you might miss it. And every service opportunity may not be yours to carry out. But if it aligns with your gift, skills, ability, and opportunity, be open and listen to see if YOU are being called to fill that need. Needs like:

~The lady in line in front of you who doesn’t have enough money to pay for her food

~The neighbor whose husband is away in the military and her driveway needs shoveling

~The elderly gentleman across the way with no way to get to his Dr. appointment

~Winter coats, hats and gloves for the single mother of 4

~A word of encouragement for the one suffering from depression

~A hot cup of coffee for the parking attendant

What can you do today, tomorrow and the next to ensure you are living a lifestyle, not just a day of service to others?

Each act of love, each act of compassion, each act of service can spark #ALoveRevolution

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” Martin Luther King Jr.

As always it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired To Live Fully!