Finding Joy in Serving

Today I got a glimpse of the joy one can get when serving others. Tuesday mornings are the mornings I normally attend a bible study group (which I love!). The morning consists of an hour of large group where we sing worship songs, listen to practicals, and study devotional topics. The second hour is small group where we study a book more deeply. I love this time with God and fellow Moms. The problem was that Abby didn't enjoy her time in childcare. This fall, out of an eight week session, Abby stayed in childcare the entire two hours just once and that was due to a wonderful care taker who held her the entire two hours. Every other time I would get called out of large group and have Abby with me during small group. This made small group very hard to enjoy as I had to wrangle a tired, hungry, and confined child who just wanted to nurse, stretch, and fall asleep in her crib. Finally, Gwen (who is in charge of all the ladies doing childcare) suggested that I become a childcare lead for the Winter Session and help Abby become familiar with being in childcare. I hemmed and hawed for a long time. Mainly I was worried about giving up my once a week guaranteed away from Abby time, but I was also concerned about taking care of 10+ crawlers. Yes, I'd have other support in the room but I'd be the go-to girl. Don't get me wrong I love kids. But I also love being able to hand them back to their moms when I'm done with them. Being a lead would mean that no matter how much one was fussing or all out crying they were not something I could give back.

In the end I decided to sign up to be a Lead because I hoped and prayed that this would give Abby the comfort she needed to be able to do childcare without me for Spring session. I'll admit I dreaded the first day. But having just completed week 3 of 8, I'm realizing that I'm finding joy in serving. It's nice to be able to give other moms a much needed baby break. It's nice that I can honestly say that their child was a joy to have and I look forward to seeing them next week. And while there's always "that moment" where you look at the clock and remind yourself it's only for a little bit longer, I'm enjoying playing with all the kids. I'm so glad I signed up for this as I'm discovering that I'm growing as a person. I feel like I've never really been the giving type so this is a nice reminder that giving gets you something wonderful in return and that I need to do it more often.