I will often get asked: how do you find time to help others? Between work, family, chores and life…where does it fall? It's hard, I won't kid you. And, the painful truth is that it only happens if it's a priority. The first step (and the hard one) is to look at life and what you want to accomplish. Is it important that your children be active in sports or other activities, or to spend time with close friends and family? How important is having an immaculate home? Is it important for you to have downtime and relax each weekend or do you need to keep busy?
We happen to like being (but not in an over-scheduled way.) Helping others is important to us so we find easy ways to weave it into our lives. We're also really fortunate that we have one stay at home parent so that most of our chores and errands can happen during the work week, leaving our weekends open to play, see friends and family, and serve. I know for many families with two working parents that weekends can quickly get full with errands, sports and other obligations.
So, here's a few doable ideas that might spark some of your own:
- Helping hungry people you see on the road or near a freeway entrance is easy if you keep some granola or energy bars in your car - we stock up from Costco.
- Some families we know have a in and out rule: if new toys or clothes come in the house, some need to leave the house. There are many great organizations across the nation that take used items like Goodwill, Salvation Army and other local places like shelters. Once a month, fill up a bag or two - this kind of cleansing is good for mama's soul too!
- Keep a couple plastic bags in the car to pick up litter when you're out and abut, on a walk or hike, or just out in your neighborhood.
- Feeding the birds is super easy with a pine cone covered in peanut better and rolled in bird seed.
- Before you put something in the trash or recycle bin, think twice. Is there something else you could do with that? We use yogurt cups for painting, empty toilet paper rolls for spotting scopes and magical wands, and glass jars for flowers and homemade salad dressings.
Hopefully one or two of these are easy enough that they can fit right into your schedule. You may already be doing some things like this and not giving yourself credit. If you need more ideas, let me know.
And, please add some of your own ideas in the comments too! Help other families find easy ways to help. Thanks
Get Change Becomes Change updates sent right to your email by subscribing to our blog.
Comments