LAST PLACE FIRST

"Anyone who wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else"
Mark 9:35

For the past few weeks I have been getting really irritated with my family, it seemed like every time one of them opened his mouth there was something they wanted me to do, to make or get something for them. I felt like I was "on the run" from the time I rose in the morning until I laid my head down at the end of the day. Someone wanted me to make this and another wanted me to go get that. All day, everyday and because I love them, I did what they demanded. I use the word demanded because they would not use the two little words I had drilled into their little minds as they were beginning to speak.... "please and thank you". You would think I forgot to teach them manners when they were toddlers. I felt like the only time they wanted to converse with me was if they needed something otherwise, I was invisible. Day after day, demand after demand it went on and I holding in my little snippets of sarcastic remarks and thoughts of disbelief in their attitudes and just as I was about to blow... there laying on the kitchen table was a piece of paper with the words "Serve your way to greatness". I stared at those words for a moment when I remembered the verse in the book of Mark. So I searched through the Book of Mark and found the verse " Anyone who wants to be first must take last place and be a servant of everyone else". I meditated on that for a little while and thought.... " Thank you Lord for putting things back into perspective". I witness everyday the "self" attitudes and actions in young people today and it saddens me to think that our society has become the "whats in it for me" generation.

We are to serve with a joyful heart and a humbled spirit for the Lord, to everyone and that includes my own family because true significance is found in service to others. It's funny how we forget things that we've been taught.