Have you ever found it difficult to serve? Or rather difficult to have a good attitude about serving? I’ll just say in this safe place…you’re not alone! 

There have been days when I am heading to church already counting down the minutes to get back home. Negative thoughts about the people I was going to serve would pile a mile high in my head. 

“I don’t have enough Sunday School helpers. Why won’t people help?” 

“Where are those kids’ parents? I hate being the one to always have to enforce the rules.” 

“I wonder if that person is going to corner me again to complain about others and demand I ‘handle it.’” 

“Why can’t people clean up their own messes? I mean, they wouldn’t leave spilt coffee on their own wood floor, now, would they?” 

And therein lay my problem. I was distracted and focused on the people I was going to serve instead of serving my Almighty Father. It is He alone who deserves my heart’s attention and service. No wonder my worship was heavy and my attitude stinky. 

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23–24 (NIV)

With eternal perspective, I can see my service as it truly is, a gift from and an offering to the Lord. Shifting my focus to serving God instead of people helps the negative thoughts fade away. It also helps me kindly represent my Savior when I interact with His bride, knowing that it brings God glory. And then the Spirit can use my service to increase my love for God and prayerfully encourage others to join me. Oh, that my love for serving God with a willing heart will be contagious!