Why I'm Posting...

Nobody has questioned me, but I feel like I still want to share WHY I am posting about our year long family service challenge. I guess that I just want people to know that I'm NOT blogging about it because I think we are doing some wonderful amazing thing. I'm also not blogging about it so that people can see what we do and "pat us on the back." Nope. There are reasons though that I am blogging about it. And in case you are curious- here they are:

1. To encourage other families with small children to consider serving with their kids too! There are so many of you out there who already are (we by NO means have the market cornered on this one)- so hopefully we can be an encouragement to each other. Because, let's be honest, some days just getting the kids dressed and fed is a battle!

2. To give other families some ideas about different ways they can serve with their kids. When I first started thinking about this idea I looked in a few places to try to find some specific ideas/ways to serve with our kids and I was surprised by how little I found. I did, of course, find a few good ideas but not nearly as many as I was hoping for. So maybe some families out there will enjoy hearing about some of the things we do. And if any of you have ideas please DO share as I would love to hear them! I'm finding that this might be the hardest part (and biggest deterrent).

3. Because I blog about so many of the other things in our family life- it would feel sort of strange to leave this out. I by no means think that his is a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it is sort of a big deal for our little family (like I said- some days just getting us all dressed is hard)!:)

4. To help keep me accountable. Our family has set a goal of doing one act of service a week. I know that there may be weeks that this just doesn't happen, but if at all possible I want to try. Knowing that all of you out there know about it really does help me feel accountable (and thus, hopefully, more likely to follow through).

5. And ultimately I want to give God the glory. If anybody at all is affected in a good way by the things that God is leading us to do I want God to get the credit (because truthfully it is only because of HIM that I am able to serve anybody but myself). I would love it if some of the people on the other end of our little acts of service are interested enough to come to my blog and check out the motivation behind what we are doing. I hope that they would find that it's our relationship with God alone that gives us the motivation, hope, and love to be able to do anything for anybody other than ourselves.

So there you have it. Hopefully you'll hear from us each week about this and I would love to hear back from some of you too (especially if you have good ideas)! There may not always be pictures (which is strange for me) because it's not always appropriate for me to be photographing what we do (but sometimes it will be okay). I hope you'll enjoy reading anyway!