SERVE

This week at teacher in-service, our administrator at school told us a story about three men who were incredibly close to reaching their lifelong dream of climbing Mt. Everest, when they came upon a man who was half-frozen, semi-delirious, and suffering from oxygen deprivation. They had a choice to make - abandon their dream or abandon this man. The man was already half-dead. Who even knew if he would survive the treacherous trip down the mountain? And even if he did, would he ever be "normal" again?

The men chose to let go of their dream in hopes of saving a human life. And, miraculously, the man survived, was reunited with his family, and recovered from his near-death experience. The whole point of the story centered on service. How willing are we to lay aside our own wants and desires to serve others? How willing are we to detour from our to-do lists and put the needs of someone else first? How willing are we to even take the time to stop and pick up the trash laying around?

After discussing the importance of serving one another, we were challenged to develop an acrostic for the word SERVE to create a theme for the school year.

Here it is:


S - Surrender Self

E - Encourage Others

R - Refuse to Complain

V - Volunteer for the 2nd Mile

E - Extend a Hand

I have to admit, this hit me pretty hard. I typically have an agenda, and a will to get it accomplished. I do not naturally or easily set aside what I have in mind to get done and let the needs of others take the place of my own. Oh, at times it may come across like I do this well, but usually only when I can fit it in neat and tidy with whatever else is going on in my life.

That is so sad. So, I am attempting to rise to the challenge. I know it's not going to be easy. I'm in way over my head with teaching (just added one more class to my schedule yesterday), accreditation work, keeping the family fed and the clothes clean, and still being a good wife to my husband, a good mother to my kids, and a good friend to my good friends. But I am going to attempt to filter it all through "SERVE" and see how it goes.

I may need a few gentle reminders along the way.