For Me? For Others?

So much of what we choose to do is based on what will I get out of it? We all live such busy lives and so we choose carefully what to be involved in. We want to make sure it benefits us or our family. As fall approaches and the busy season of school is starting up again, we are all weighing the importance of what things to give our limited time to. We need to do a priority check.

What are the reasons to choose one activity over another? How do we decide the benefits will be worth our time? Is it the pleasure it will give us? Will we or someone in our family learn from it? Is it an experience we want to try? Will it bring future benefits? Those are questions we ask ourselves, but what if we asked a different question?

 What if we decided on our activities by something else entirely? What if our choices were made not to benefit us, but to benefit others? What would it be like if we prioritized our activities by how we served others? What if we weighed everything we did by how it would minister to someone else?

I wonder what benefits we and our family would receive with that kind of servant attitude. How many blessings would come our way? How many lives would touch us as we reached out to them? I can't even imagine the lessons we would learn.

I serve with a few volunteer groups and the lament is always that no one wants to help. We are always struggling to find more people willing to do something. While many believe in the cause, few will do the work. They are just too busy! And we all are, but are we busy with the right things?

Are all the things we are busy with for ourselves and not others? Who are we serving? Are we using our heart's passion to touch other lives? Are we intentional in doing that? Do we plan it? Or does it only happen when we have no choice, when we are pushed into the doing of service for others?

As I plan my fall, winter, year, I am reconsidering my priorities. Who am I reaching out to? Whose lives am I touching? Am I on the path God created me to walk on? Am I where I should be? Am I willing to go down a different path? When I am in that right place, my heart is filled with joy and that joy flows out to others.

Someone once told me many of our choices are between good things, even very good things, but we should choose those that are excellent. What is more excellent than serving others, seeing others with a God perspective? I want to strive for that.