You must open your eyes wide so that you can see the opportunities to give free service, wholehearted, right where you are, in your family.
~ St. Teresa of Calcutta
I read these words the other day and thought, "Yes, indeed, we must, and my daughter is such a model of this for me."
Whether she is making a cake for her father, but leaving the strawberries off a portion of it because she knows her brother does not like them...
... or going out to care for our gardens before I get to it...
...or offering to do someone's else's chores..
...or declaring, "I can help with that," while she jumps in to action before even being asked, my daughter makes efforts every single day to bless each person in our home with a kindness.
Sometimes, her efforts go unnoticed or get taken for granted, but she does not let that stop her. Recognition and thanks are not her goal. Simply noticing the needs and wants of others in our family and making concerted efforts to offer little acts of service with a smile or a word of encouragement or gratitude is.
Her efforts are truly beautiful and the timing of them is often uncanny. So often, just when I get stuck in the mire of day-to-day life, her direct acts of service for me or the witness of her acts for others move me back to where I am meant to be.
As my daughter's Confirmation St. Therese said:
A word or a smile if often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.
Oh how very true that is.
Open eyes, service within family, and a smile bring such fresh life. These three things can make such an impact on a family.
I encourage you - and me! - to open your eyes today to whatever service you can freely offer to others in your family and, while acting on what comes to mind, to smile.
