Selfishness or Serving

Audio By Carbonatix

If you want to make me angry…if you want to fire me up…if you want to tick me off… just be selfish—downright selfish. My kids always knew that would be a quick way to drive me absolutely nuts. There are times when I read posts or see videos online and I just go crazy because the whole thing reeks of self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self. So yes, I do get really angry at myself sometimes when I notice my own selfish tendencies. We live in a selfish world, and I can’t help but notice it all around me—in myself and others.  

But the honest reality is this—what really makes a family work, what makes a marriage survive, what builds relationships, what makes this world reflect love is not self at all. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of that. It’s serving! So, why is it that we lose sight of this?

When my kids were growing up, I would do a little test sometimes around the dinner table that you might want to take the time to do yourself in the car, before bed, or this evening at dinner. Every now and then, I’d pop the question, “How did you serve today?” I did this because I was looking to see if we were serving others on a regular basis. If so, I knew we were going in the right direction. But in day-to-day life, it is so easy to become wrapped up and consumed in our own schedules, our own wants, our own needs—that we tend to forget to look at those around us. It can often be so hard to re-focus our attention to the service of others, and not the selfish desires of ourselves. This is when we get into trouble.  

So, how would you answer that question today? If it was asked at your dinner table, could you name off a few things…or anything? Let’s be honest, there are days that we all feel a bit (or very!) selfish and don’t think about others as much as we should. But the real problem starts when one day runs on into weeks, months, and even years. Then maybe we need to take a good, hard look at what’s wrong with the world—and maybe that look should begin with us!