Summer is the perfect time to start teaching your children the joys of service. I recently interviewed Taralyn Parker and we had a great conversation about how to make service a positive and fun experience for you and your family.
She has such a great perspective about how to ditch the guilt of “am I doing enough to serve” and instead finding natural and fun ways to serve exactly where you are at and with the resources and talents you have.
If you would like to watch the full interview, click HERE, or read the summary below!
Tip 1: Point Out the Positive
- We need to always start with our WHY? Why are we serving? Talk about it with your kids and help them know why you are doing it.
- Help your kids recognize that good feeling they have when they are serving other people. For example, let them help you with the service you are doing and then afterwards follow up with: How did that make you feel? Did you notice the smile on _____ face? This is what helps it stick and they will have a natural desire to do more.
- Research shows that serving helps boost self-confidence, self-esteem, a sense of accomplishment, and empathy. Serving others helps us to have empathy for them and their situations. This natural empathy will help our kids desire to do more. It will help them feeling grateful for what you have and let them see that they can make a difference as they serve those around them in their community.
- Keeping it positive means making them feel good about their efforts!
Tip 2: Lift Where You Stand
- Give ourselves credit for what we are already doing! Taralyn shares a story about helping her kids serve. She has a weekly chart for them and one of the tasks is to do a service for the week. When he asked her boys what they had done for service that week they said they had helped their aunt bring in her groceries while they were visiting her. Taralyn’s first thought was that that was not the organized, intentional service she had been picturing. Thankfully the spirit stopped her and helped her realize how meaningful it was that they recognized the service they were already doing and thanked them for their efforts.
- Look around you and see what needs to be done. Look at your resources. Right now do you have extra time? Extra money? Extra supplies of something? What are your talents? Each of us has something to give!
- See if there are any community service days in your area. Just Serve is an app and a website (justserve.org) that lets you find service activities in your community. You can download the app right now on your phone for quick, easy access. It has a variety of service opportunities for different budgets and talents.
Tip 3: Make it Fun
Your kids are more likely to serve if is fun or meaningful to them. Find ways to help them do it with friends (example: indexing party with cousins on Zoom). Tie it to something fun (tying blankets while watching a movie, tie bags on your belt loop and go on a “scavenger hunt” picking up trash, create a fun name for your service (Very Nice Ninjas) and sneak around doing your service without anyone seeing you.)
Remember:
Each of us are in different circumstances, talents, or resources. There is something we each can do. It doesn’t have to be anything grand, but our simple efforts are needed and make a difference and the world needs.
Don’t feel burdened or guilty about having to do more or be more. Lift where you stand and focus on the positive. As moms we are already serving our families, in our church, and community. Celebrate what you are already doing and listen for those promptings of anything else you can do. Do what makes you happy! That is what your kids will learn from and what will bring you closer to Christ.
Make sure to check out our FREE printable, Summer of Service for some fun and simple ways to include more family service this summer! Click HERE.
