Do you know how good it feels to serve someone else? Not in a slavery-abusive type situation, that's not cool, but when you willingly give of yourself to take care of someone else's needs?
Let's look at some etymology real quick.
My name is Alexandra, a Hebrew feminine version of the name Alexander. The name means "defender/helper of mankind."
Helper of mankind. Well, that's quite the load, isn't it?
That being said, I have tried to live my life with a servant's heart and to help people as best as I can. The best part of this? My husband's top love language is Acts of Service.
One of the most loving things I can do for my husband is to clean up a little, or have dinner made when he gets home; simply taking care of a task for him so he doesn't have to worry about it is all I need to do.
It's not easy, and sometimes I just don't wanna get off the couch. I'm not perfect at this love language by any means! But when I put a little bit of effort in towards it, it goes a long way.
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Something I'm working on for myself, however, is how to accept someone else's acts of service towards me. My brain sort of goes "But wait, I'm the helper! I take care of YOU, not the other way around.... how could I ever ask for help?"
I'm taking it in small steps, for sure. They always say you can't truly love other people unless you love yourself, and that counts for self-care/asking for help too, I think. I'm still pretty independent, and usually just take care of my things myself. But here are some ways I am working on letting other people serve me like I want to serve them:
*Asking for a workout buddy to join me at the gym (I also love Fitbit challenges! Add me!)
*Texting a friend a seemingly stupid question because I need to lower my pride and actually figure out the answer
*Calling my husband when I'm upset and just listening to his voice to cheer me up (this is sometimes hard for me because I don't want to bother him...but merely hearing him helps me SO much)
*Asking my husband to help me with a task
*Asking a friend for advice (also hard: I have to admit that I don't know how to handle something that I feel I should already know how to)
*Actually inviting someone to just hang out- this may not seem like a normal "act of service," but it is a really huge step for me right now
What are your favorite ways to help someone?
What ways can you ask someone to help you?
Both are important!
xoxo,
Alexandra Anne
I've always had a hard time asking help myself. In the past couple of years I've gotten better about admitting when I needed help because my job was keeping me so busy. It's definitely hard to come to that point when you're independent, but also definitely good for you.
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