What does that mean...Servant?

I recently had an opportunity to take advantage of a very teachable moment with a four-year-old. We were reading a book, and the mom tripped over the young girls toys in the book. Her next statement was the ever popular "I'm not your servant!" Now I happened to be reading to a little girl who is very curious and likes to know what things mean, or what they do. We had a conversation over lunch about the benefits of water, carrots, and corn. Not the topic of this post, but just an examply of her curiosity.

After I read the mother's statement, this little girl, we'll call her Sue, interrupted the story to ask what a servant was. I had a hard time to start because my mind was not on how we are servants of Christ and one another, but on the mother's attitude towards serving and how our culture often views serving. Well, little Sue wanted to know what this meant, and she did not at all seem to echo the mother's tone of voice. I gave some examples, and she even came up with her own from just a little while earlier. I asked her after talking for a few minutes if we could finish the story and talk more about being a servant after the story was done.

Well, I had completely forgotten. Not Sue. We finished and she asked immediately if we could talk more about what a servant is. We talked only for about two minutes, and then we proceeded to be servants where I was watching her. She helped me clean the lunch dishes and put them away, then we wiped down the tables and dried them off, and then we washed the wall near the light switch in the bathroom. We picked up all the toys in the living room, and the place looked great! She had a fascination with this and was trying to find as many things as she could to be a servant. She kept saying "Daddy will be proud of us," and since he's a theology professor, I was thinking, "Child, you don't know how true this is!" He was indeed!

So, what I take away from this is, first, take every opportunity to learn and to teach. In teaching this little girl what it means to be a servant, I learned as well, because I watched as she wanted to do whatever could be done, and she was not upset about it as the mother in the book, she was delighted to do it! Oh that my heart would be glad at every opportunity to serve, and that I would seek them out and not be satisfied when they're halfway done.

Secondly, it a lesson once again in seeing through the eyes of a child, and having the faith of a child. Her faith that I knew what I was talking about, and her innocence in following me as we went about what needed to be done was astounding, and I long for that kind of faith that will propell me to action (yes, even relational action, which is far more my style). I'm learning lately even more of what it means to be relational and to seek to meet those needs in others. It's my way of serving.

I'm looking for the opportunities to serve people's hearts, and I'm seeing God's provision in new ways as I serve Him in this capacity. Looking forward to many more teachable opportunities this semester with this little girl...