Need Something To Do: Serve!
Author: Julee Mitchelsin

Are your days dragging on? Are you looking for a way to
contribute to your local community? Do you want to get involved
in a project bigger than yourself? Do you need some hours to
fulfill a community service requirement? If so, I have got the
thing for you: serve. It sounds elusive and ambiguous, but it
does not have to.

To serve others is a wonderful thing. There are a few
compelling reasons to spend your time in this valuable way.
First, taking time to serve gets you outside of your own life,
your own cares, and your own needs and forces you to focus on
the needs and cares of others. Most of the people in the world
and even in your hometown have different issues, problems, and
concerns than you do. And this is a great thing. By taking the
time to serve people different than yourself, your life cannot
remain focused only on you for very long. You will find that
you begin to think of others' needs along with your own.

Taking the time to serve others can also be fun. Are you
interested in sewing? Why not start a sewing group at a local
nursing home. Spend a couple of hours each week teaching or
reteaching elderly women a skill that will help them connect
with one another and pass lonely days with fun. Or perhaps you
love kids. Take a few hours each week to serve as a recess
monitor at a local elementary school. The teachers will love
the break and you will love getting to know the young children.
Maybe you are great at fixing cars. Consider taking that rare
skill and using it to serve single mothers or elderly people
who are not able to fix their own vehicles. What a blessing you
can be and what a fun time you can have when you serve others.

Serving is great because it is so easy. You do not have to
commit forty hours each week to serve in many organizations.
Instead, set aside just a couple of hours each week to serve in
an area that you love. You can even start to serve by doing
something as easy as raking your neighbor's lawn or by offering
to pick up your neighbor's groceries when you pick up your own.
What could be easier than that? Or serve your friends by
offering to cook them a meal or pick up their children from
school. Are you passionate about women having healthy
pregnancies? Volunteer to serve one morning a week at a local
pregnancy care center.

A final reason to serve is because it is important to the
health and life of all communities. Every community would
benefit greatly if all of its people were generous with their
time and energies. Think of all the great things that could
happen in your town. Amazing things can happen when people put
their passions and their skills together. Needs are met and
problems are solved when people begin to serve one another.

Take some time right now to consider an area or two that you
can serve in. Think of ways to include the cares of others in
your day. Make sure that you choose to serve in an area that is
fun for you. You will be much more likely to do something well
if you are having fun at it. Serving others can easily be
incorporated into even the busiest of schedules, and your
community will thank you for it.


About The Author: Julee Mitchelsin loves to encourage people to
serve their communities by writing timely pieces on the subject.
Check out http://www.serveplace.info for more details.