July 26

PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 26: “Pray for people. Serve more. Practice patience. And, bring the best out in people.”― Max Lucado

This quote serves, for me, as a reminder to what I must do when I am upset or unhappy about something. My greatest sponsor always told me these were the keys to a happy life…to serve, to help others, and to serve even more. When I am not in a good space, I always find peace in service.

What is sad for me is that most people do no service work at all. They are so consumed with themselves and their lives they do not benefit the world around them in any way. Or they tell me that they serve by taking care of their family or others in their lives. That is self-serving, to be sure, but not in the ways meant by these steps of being of service.

It is great to serve our families and friends, but that is truly serving ourselves. We must go out into the world and be part of it in significant ways, especially when we no longer work or have commitments to meet each day in the world. It is easy to get “busy” in life and do nothing for others, or to believe that writing a check for a donation to something is service. It is not.

That same sponsor told me that I have to step outside of my comfort zone to do things for others that they need to have done, simple things, but not within the confines of my own comfort. I must set myself aside to be of service. If it is inconvenient or takes time from my personal life, it is being of service. I grow that way. And I find that my patience with others is enhanced and beautified in the process, because I am forgetting my own shit.