Serving and Other Ways To Be Yourself

One of my favorite toddlers just being himself

Sunday morning I worked in the two-year old nursery at our church. It was a blast. Besides just being overwhelmed by CUTENESS, I also really enjoyed the reminder of who we all are at our core. At two years old we haven't figured out how to cover up our true feelings yet and it's just all RIGHT THERE. If you want to take something from someone, you pretty much just take it. If you feel compassion for a friend, you offer them a toy. If you need to be held, you reach your arms up and whimper. If you want a cookie, you ask - as many times as it takes. I appreciate manners and boundaries as much as anyone but it was really fun to be surrounded by raw humanity for a while. When I left I was pretty tired but I found myself smiling throughout the day about cute things the kids had said and done.


When I mentioned working in the toddler room to a friend she said 'give me grade schoolers any day. Just don't put me with the toddlers or teenagers.' It was funny because grade schoolers stress me out more than toddlers or teenagers. I guess it's just a matter of finding your spot to serve. Each one of us has gifts and preferences and personality traits that find their expression in different kinds of service. I Corinthians 12 has a lot to say about finding your place to serve. It relates your place of service to the parts of the physical body. For me to serve with gradeschoolers would be like my foot trying to do crochet. It might be possible but it would be awkward at best. But when I am with toddlers and teenagers I am in my element, doing what I was designed to do. I feel a joy in that place that I think might be like the joy a runner feels on that 'runner's high' (which I have only heard of and NEVER experienced).


Have you found your place of service? When you do, you will find your happy place. It's worth the search.