Day 4 Today's theme: SERVICE

Serve Him

We know we love God's children if we love God

and obey his commandments.

1 John 5:2 NLT

The teachings of Jesus are clear: We achieve greatness through service to others. But, as weak human beings, we sometimes fall short as we seek to puff ourselves up and glorify our own accomplishments. Jesus commands otherwise. He teaches us that the most esteemed men and women are not the self~congratulatory leaders of society but are instead the humblest of servants.

Today, you may feel the temptation to build yourself up in the eyes of your neighbors. Resist that temptation. instead, serve your neighbors quietly and without fanfare

Find a need and fill it...humbly. Lend a helping hand and share the words of kindness....anonymously, for this is God's way. As a humble servant, you will glorify yourself not before men. but before God, and that's what God intends. After all, earthly glory is fleeting: here today and all too soon gone.

But, heavenly glory endues throughout eternity. So, the choice is yours:Either you can lift yourself up here on earth and be humbled in heaven, or vice versa. Choose vice versa.

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I remember after my mom passed away in November of 1996 I was lost, I been taking care of her cause her health wasn't good, raising four little kids alone, I thought I wasn't going to be able to make it, Even though I hated it, I hated taking care of my mom, she was young, she was the Ma maw of seven. What was I going to do now. I remember feeling relieve and sadness when she died. relieve cause I didn't have to take care of her anymore and sadness because she was my mommy, We had our arguments but we were able to let is go and move on.

So when I woke up on November 21st 1996 to get the kids ready for school, I went down to put laundry in the dryer, came back up to wake the kids and mom's machines sounded different. I said mom, mom shook her then it hit me, Oh God no!!!! my mom passed sometime in the night, I called my grandparents first then my step dad then 911 had to get the kids up send them to the neighbor I had laundry folded in piles all over the living room.

When the ambulance came, I don't remember much except I walked around our neighborhood while they were in my house taking care of what needed to be done, didn't go back in till they left with my mom on the streatcher. I just couldn't deal with it, I was 30 then, and lost in no mans land, I hadn't turned my life over to God yet, only because I didn't know thats what I was to do.

December of that same year around Christmas everyone I knew brought gifts for the kids, food for the house, there was sooooo much of it that the gifts filled our dinning room, and it was big! the food filled every cabinet I had with more to be put somewhere. And still I didn't know it was God's work at hand, I thanked God But it never really hit me. I thought these people felt sorry for me, which I am sure they did, it's hard not to at a time like that.

God was by my side through all of this and I still felt like I was alone with four kids, Oh God what am I going to do I kept asking, how am I going to get through this, oh God please help me I begged over and over again. That was the year my world started falling apart.

And here I am today. What I didn't know then and what I know now is God sent his servent's to help me when I was in great need and he always had been I just never realized it at the time. Keep in mind you do not always have to have money to be God's sevent, most of the time it only cost time out of your life. Praise God for he never gives up on us, nor leaves us alone, We are the ones who give up on God, We are the ones who make ourselves lonely, Please turn that around let God help you, He loves us more then we can comprehend, and only wants us to love him, live for him, praise him.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to a part of my life story.

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Today's prayer of Praise

Dear Lord, in weak moments, I seek to build myself up by placing myself ahead of others. But Your commandment, Father, is that I become a humble servent to those who need my encouragement, my help, and my love. create in me a servent's heart. And let me be the person who follows in the footsteps of your Son Jesus who taught us by example that to be great in Your eyes, lord, is to serve others humbly, faithfully, and lovingly.

Amen