Give Yourself Credit

27 Days to a Happy Mom - Day 19

Sometimes we think of service as being something that we do for purely altruistic purposes (is there such a thing as pure altruism in real life?) without getting anything back.  In fact, it is somehow a more wonderful service if we don't like it, or if we don't get anything from it.  I maintain that if this was the only way we could do help other people, we would never do it.  Or almost never.

I'm not trying to say that this kind of service doesn't happen at all.  It just comes up when we don't want it to.  Like the exhausted mother who drags herself out of bed for the fourth time in a night when she hears the little one crying - again.  Or our friend who put her heart and soul into starting a school for bilingual children, and then got voted off the board.  After she had invested years of work and all her savings.  Or the queasy-stomached expectant mother who gingerly loads her child's vomit-soaked clothing into the washing machine while trying not to gag.  Or the adult children who end up caring for their aging parents.

We might not want to do this kind of service, but we moms, we do it all.  the.  time.  Give yourself credit.  You do contribute to the good of the world.  You are helping other people.  You are doing service.  And {usually} it feels good - because we do it out of love.

Just for today... think of a few things you have done in service that you might not have counted before.  And give yourself a big pat on the back for it.