Why Service?

It had been a couple of days since our 7 month old daughter passed away. We left to go pick out her final resting spot. It was awful. We drove in silence, well, silence except the tears. When we rounded the corner,  returning home, there was a sign on our garage that read, "We love you Taylor Family".

It was just what I needed to read, in the exact moment. And to be honest, we didn't take that sign down for a very long time. It was a perfect greeting for us each time we returned to our home, that seemed too quiet. Because it was too quiet.

This was the not the first act of service that we had been shown. It was one of thousands. It has been a long 7 months with a sick child, but it was also 7 months of love, and learning and growing. There were meals, notes, drawings, babysitting. There were prayers, oh how there were prayers. There were gifts, and texts, and phone calls. There were blood donations, money sent, and living donors signed up. There were smiles, flowers, hugs, tears and a shoulder to cry on. And after she passed, we experienced more love and service than I knew was possible.

It wasn't too long after she passed that I realized I was the one who needed to serve. I needed it. I need to forget myself, my pain, and my grief. I needed to lose myself, because being myself was painful. It started out somewhat selfish, but I realized that so much healing was taking place, and joy and happiness were increasing in our home as well. 

Service is powerful. It has the power to change lives. I can testify to that. Without the service shown to our family, we would not be where we are today. 

“By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. …" 

Those small acts of kindness and love shown to us, have brought happiness and joy, when we thought those things were impossible.

Service has changed our life.