Teach your children to serve others.
When we serve others, it makes us feel good.
When we serve others, it makes the other person feel good.
When we serve others, we put something good out into the universe, and the universe pays us back – with interest.
The Bible tells us the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor, second only to love God.
Serving makes us happier, better people. Period.
Skill #4 is to make emotional deposits. Mini-Lesson #12 (Make Emotional Deposits) suggests 10 emotional deposits we can make into the bank account which is our family. This post adds one more emotional deposit: Teach your children to serve others. How can you do that?
Teach by example.
Anything we do to help another person, whether inside or outside our family is serving others – even if it’s only lifting someone’s spirit and making them happier. Whenever you serve, involve your child. Let your child see and feel the benefits. Here are 60 ways to serve others.
- Write a letter to someone
- Send a birthday card
- Invite someone over for dinner
- Mow someone’s lawn
- Shovel someone’s snow
- Wash someone’s car
- Rake a neighbor’s yard
- Say “thank you” to the guy cleaning trash from the park
- Become a sub for Santa
- Bake something for someone
- Weed someone’s flower bed
- Babysit for someone
- Help a stranded motorist
- Donate food to food banks and clothing to secondhand shops
- Make a meal for someone going through a challenging time
- Tutor someone struggling in school
- Send a thank you note to a teacher
- Send a thank you note to ANYONE
- Make some chocolate chip cookies for someone
- Help clean someone’s house
- Share something with someone
- Listen patiently to someone
- Tip generously
- Leave a kind note for your server at a restaurant
- Pay for a stranger’s meal who is waiting in line behind you
- Make a new friend
- Clean up your mess so others don’t have to
- Look for opportunities to thank someone
- Allow vehicles to merge in front of you
- Offer help to someone struggling to carry something
- Offer to take someone’s dog for a walk
- Help someone who appears to be lost
- Make someone laugh
- Give up your seat on a bus or subway
- Talk to the person who appears to be lonely at a gathering
- Write an encouraging note to someone
- Give money to a charity organization even if it’s only a little bit
- Volunteer your time to a charity organization even if it’s only a little bit
- Help a neighbor move in or move out
- Hold the door open for someone
- Take a friend to lunch
- Tell a custodian that you appreciate his or her work
- Tell ANYONE you appreciate their work
- Visit someone you know who is in the hospital
- Stay behind after a party to help clean up
- Be on time
- Let someone with only a few items ahead of you in the shopping line
- Give honest feedback when someone asks for it
- Speak up for someone who is being treated unfairly
- Put your phone away when talking with someone
- Text a friend just to say hi
- Give someone a lottery ticket
- Buy flowers for a friend
- Keep secrets
- Call someone you haven’t spoken with for a while
- Give someone a special treat you bought for them at the store
- Do a family member’s chore for them
- Leave a post-it-note with and encouraging thought on a mirror
- Drive someone somewhere who can’t drive
- Invite someone to go for a walk with you
Print this list and see if you can check off 30 items in one month by doing one act of service every day.
Parents: do an act of service for your children. That counts.
When you help someone, don’t expect anything in return.
Believe that you can make a difference in someone’s life – because you will.
Be on the lookout for people who need help. If you look, you’ll find.
Smile and be friendly. A simple act like that can make someone’s day.
Take good care of yourself to enable you to help others.
Share this post with a friend. That’s right. Pay it forward.