Serving Those We Love

“Great oppor­tu­ni­ties to help oth­ers sel­dom come, but small ones sur­round us every day.” ~ Sally Koch

Shov­el­ing a snowy walk­way for an elderly neigh­bor, open­ing the door for a stranger on crutches, donat­ing money to a char­ity, or vol­un­teer­ing at a local shel­ter are just a few exam­ples of ser­vice to oth­ers. Even smil­ing at a passerby on the street and allow­ing some­one with fewer items to move ahead in the line at the gro­cery are small ways we serve others.

“Help one per­son at a time, and always start with the per­son near­est you.” ~ Mother Teresa

While ser­vice to those in need is impor­tant, so too is serv­ing daily the peo­ple we love. Some­times show­ing the same level of kind­ness and con­sid­er­a­tion we do for strangers to those we love is chal­leng­ing or not even attempted.

Do we take a rela­tion­ship for granted as a result of a cer­tain com­fort level?

Has nur­tur­ing and tend­ing to the rela­tion­ship slowly eroded over time?

Are long-standing grudges get­ting in the way of car­ing for the relationship?

Have we stopped speak­ing lovingly?

Love, sup­port, kind­ness, com­pas­sion, empa­thy, under­stand­ing, and for­give­ness are not to be reserved for char­ity and ser­vice to strangers; it should be show­ered on those we love, too.

Ask your­self: how have I served those I love today?

It will serve you well.

by Kelly Sajo­nia

Kelly Sajo­nia is a writer for many sites, but spends most of her time writ­ing for her award-winning blog Naked Girl in a Dress. Her inspi­ra­tional blog cel­e­brates redis­cov­er­ing life and love at any age. Kelly also has a full ser­vice social media mar­ket­ing busi­ness, runs a social media site for writ­ers, teaches blog­ging, and occa­sion­ally takes a pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­phy gig.

Kelly Sajonia

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