Serving Others (When You Barely Have Time To Take Care Of Yourself!)

**Did you miss the other posts in this series of 31 Days Of Intentional Living?  You can find them here!

Volunteering, serving others, and donating your time.  All of these are supposed to bring us joy.  However, when we barely have time to take care of ourselves, eat dinner with our own families or even grab a coffee with a girlfriend, these just become more work to add to our to-do list.

When you are asked to serve and volunteer, how do you respond?  Is it with a cheerful yes, even at the expense of your own needs?  Do you agree and figure you will worry about it later?  Do you quickly try to come up with an excuse to get you out of it?  (Hey, I have been guilty of this, too!   We are human and we can’t do it all!)  Or do you prayerfully consider it and give an answer after you have done so?   I don’t want to say no to every opportunity, but I can’t say yes to all of them, either.  We are called to serve others and I want to say “yes” to the best opportunities and “no” to the others.

If you are really cramped for time, but still want to be able to serve in a meaningful way, here are 6 quick ideas for you to consider:

1. When you are cleaning, organizing or decluttering, donate you clothing, toys, household items, personal care items, to organizations in your community who directly serve others.  In my area we have what is called the S.A.F.E. Center which helps women who have been domestically abused get out of the situation.  Their wish list always includes pull-ups and diapers, clothing, unused personal care items such as toothpaste, toilet paper, or anything else that can help these women live healthy lives.  Local churches also are a great place to donate these type of items.  I always feel extremely blessed when I can serve others right here, where we live.
2. Donate food to your local food pantry.  When you are grocery shopping and see a sale on boxed macaroni and cheese or canned soup pick up some extra to take to your food pantry.  By shopping sale items, you stretch your dollars and it doesn’t have to cost a lot to do so.
3. If you have friends with a new baby or are struggling, make a double recipe and deliver dinner.  Doubling a recipe doesn’t take much time and they will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
4. Grow extra produce in your garden and give it away to others.
5. Take a treat to your child’s teacher when you pick him up from school.
6. Pray.

How do you decide which serving projects you will do and which ones you will not?   

Have you enjoyed what you read here today?  Do you have friends or other women you know that could benefit from this resource?  If so, please do me a favor!  I have included the links below to share with other intentional women!  They’ll be glad you did!

**Did you miss the other posts in this series of 31 Days Of Intentional Living?  You can find them here!