Servanthood

Lately, God has been dealing with me in many areas of my life. One of them in particular is about servanthood and humility. A supervisor at my current job is, unbeknownst to her, testing me. I want to tell her off so badly. I want to put her in her place and let her know exactly what everyone (no joke) in that building thinks of her. But I have held my tongue. God has continually shown me how I should act these past couple weeks. Hold my tongue. She is my superior, so I need to respect her and honor her option and requests. Stop spouting off to her in my head. Treat her with kindness, gentleness, and love. Sometimes, though, it is just so hard!

Then, yesterday I noticed a book on our bookshelf. When to Speak Up and When to Shut Up (by Dr. Michael D. Sedler). Ironically, it is a Christian book. It talks about the importance of knowing which I am supposed to do, about discerning whether the action I want to take is of God or of myself. And, what do you know? It is going right along with what God has been teaching me.

Aside from this supervisor, servanthood in general has been tugging at my character. Why not do those same things for people on the street or simply for other people I know? I am supposed to obey and respect my elders. What about for those who are not my superiors? Well, they deserve respect as well. Kindness, love, mercy, grace, forgiveness--all these things should be shown to every person that I come across, even myself. I have found myself, possibly boosted by the proximity of Valentine's Day, doing many little things for my spouse, whether directly or simply as something around the house. I find myself wanting to do more for people, even though I still have to fight my thoughts about how "They do not deserve such treatment." or "But they never treat me that way." I find myself looking for odd and creative ways to serve people, to show them God's love.

Despite the initial discomfort and the inner fights with some of my thoughts, I like this. I am being challenged in a way that most people would never think to challenge another. So, if you are reading this, I challenge you--find someone you think you loathe, and then do something completely undeserved for them. See how you feel afterward.