Serving

Friends of ours had a graduation party for their son this past weekend. My wife and I believe that when you have a party of that sort where there are going to be lots relatives and friends coming over, you cannot do it yourself. So we, along with another couple, volunteered to serve them for the day.

This means that we would help set up for the party, get the buffet ready for dinner, watch the food throughout the day to make sure that all of the dishes are full, empty trash and generally do whatever it took to free the hosts up to greet their guests and socialize.

These are special friends and we were happy to do this important (and exhausting) job. And even though we were doing this, we still had time between the four of us to have a good time at the party. Our friends could not find enough words to express their appreciation for what we did.

The Bible says that you should serve others (he who wants to be first should make themselves last, to paraphrase). This weekend once again proved how fulfilling serving can be. Our friends were so thankful for all we did, you could tell it meant the world to them.

I want to be more active in looking for ways to serve others. This doesn't have to be an all day event like it was at the party. Any way of assisting others helps - getting the door for someone carrying something, stopping to help a stranded motorist, checking in on a home bound relative. It doesn't have to be hard, and it is almost always fulfilling.

I ran again (my writing seems to follow the pattern of my running). Same course, same run-walk mix, although I did go about 30 seconds per mile faster than the last run. I am going to try to hold that pace for the next few runs.

--Maddog