Service

There are several women in our neighborhood whom I consider faultless followers of Christ. I know this, not from any bragging on their part, but because, without their knowing it, I have taken note of the many quiet acts of kindness they've performed: caring day in and day out for aging parents, taking fresh baked bread or a meal over to a sick neighbor, helping serve at a church dinner, encouraging a young person who's struggling, making phone calls or dropping a note to someone suffering with the storms of life. They are the treasured "Grandma's" of the neighborhood, and I'm sure the Lord smiles at their service.

Service is second nature to them. There is no show in their offerings. There is no ego. There is no beating of the drum or the shining of lights. In his book, "All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience" Neal A. Maxwell states:

"Perfect love is perfectly patient. Loving patience with a disobedient child, long-term service in the sickness of a loved one who needs to be waited upon hand and foot--these are things that will stretch our souls more than so many other forms of service. To write a check, though the financial sacrifice is real, is not quite the same thing as day in and day out, providing brotherhood for the bedridden. Those of us who see others so ministering are privileged to see a gallantry that is Godlike in the regularity of service and in its selflessness."

I not only feel privileged to see these women serve, but I feel tutored. Without knowing it, they train me to seek for a better life.