The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Resolve To Serve Others

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner

January 07, 2009

Less of self is what would be best for this new year.

The, "What about me?" attitude has just not been working in our society.

A bunch of "takers', and a lack of "givers' has gotten our world into a real mess, wouldn't you say.

The idea is to resolve to serve others and start with the ones right next to you, and no excuses.

With gas prices jumping back up, wouldn't it be nice to offer a neighbor a ride to the store the next time you go.

Maybe you could offer to shovel the snow off a walk the next time it snows.

It always lifts someone's spirits to see a smile and a helping hand.

I enjoyed dinner with a friend Friday evening and she told me about her dear brother going into the store and seeing a young man from Hope Haven without gloves on a freezing day, minding the carts at this store. "Where are your gloves?" he asked. And he replied that he didn't have any.

"My brother went to the store and bought a pair of gloves and returned and gave them to the young man with instructions not to take them off." "He was overwhelmed," and of course, the sister telling me this story, was crying to see such compassion from her brother who works very hard."

"He has a heart of gold," she told me.

I agree with Mark Irish of La Harpe who said, "It is the simple things that really are the most important to us.

My oldest son and daughter-in-law are teaching their children compassion and to be polite to others. Their youngsters have trouble responding to adults or looking up at them to show their appreciation, so they have decided to make them tell them the color of each person's eyes that come into the room, to test them or see if they are learning to listen and pay attention and acknowledge the guest or the grandparent or whoever.

As we gathered, my granddaughter came up to me and stood right in front of me and so politely thanked me for the pajamas I had gotten her, "I really love them, Grandmother." A little while later, she came up again, even closer and said how much she loved the pajamas and thanked me for thinking of her." Very nice I thought. It was later, when I heard the story, and I wondered if she was trying to see into my eyes."

It's a good thought for us all to give our attention to others.