by Elizabeth Rogers, Family Enrichment Committee member
Put yourself aside and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Philippians 2:3-4 (The Message)
The values expressed in this scripture are challenging to live out, even as adults. For those of us who parent, it can be especially difficult to instill these values of selflessness in our children.
Recently, our family planned its first out of town mission project together. Although we struggle to create a family environment that daily encourages reaching beyond ourselves to help others in Christ’s name, we knew that taking a trip outside of Nashville would provide an extra measure of excitement that would help engage our kids, especially our eight-year-old. As we began our planning, we asked ourselves several questions. What organization would allow our 8-, 13-, and 15-year-old children to work alongside us? How could we foster a spirit of excitement, unity, and purpose as we faced the work? What amount of time should we commit?
Appalachian Outreach in Jefferson City, TN, provided us with lots of work options in their food pantry, clothing ministry, and Bible study time. We planned two 3-hour work sessions per day with a fun break activity in between to help our youngest stick with us. We’ll always remember the joy of giving each other high fives in the middle of clothing aisles as we raced around hanging hundreds of items to be enjoyed by folks we knew needed them most and packing grocery bags for hungry families. And the names of the people we worked with—Alice, Jean-Ann, and Jim, who work long hours each day with the work we only briefly supported—will be on our prayer list for a long time to come.
Editor’s Note: October is Heart of a Servant Month at First Baptist Church Nashville. Our church offers many opportu-nities this month and throughout the year to introduce our children to missions by helping them help others.
