My mother is the most self-less person I know. She has, throughout her life, been a model for me, demonstrating the priceless quality of putting others first. By her example, I saw how such servant leadership enriches her own life, and how it makes others feel about her. Selflessness, if we were to think of it as an investment, would be a true blue-chipper, without the need for fine-print disclaimers that "returns are not guaranteed".
Consider… my mom would always eat the heel pieces of the bread loaves for her last-made sandwiches. No one else wanted to eat the heels, but mom always did. She claimed to prefer the heels, and although I never knew her to lie or even truth-shade, I always wondered if that wasn't just a don't-you-worry-about-it suage for a concerned son. Even as a kid, I wondered why mom always had to be the one to eat the heels, but I wasn't sufficiently caring (or brave or sacrificial or what-have-you) to take her place and eat them myself. That's just one small example from a lifetime ago, but it has stuck with me.
Who are the heel eaters in your life? In your home, at church, at the office? (Perhaps it's you – God bless you!) Seek them out, and at least tell them thank you. Better yet, find a way to honor, reward, recognize them. Heel-eaters tend not to seek their own rewards, not to self-promote. And while they may protest any ray of a spotlight, shine on.
1 comment:
I love your mom and have learned so much from her self-less ways.
Good post. I am just now, 5 months later, reading it.
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