Serving with a Smile (Handouts)

SERVING WITH A SMILE
(Serving Others within Our Home)

Being a good family citizen is one of the values that should be emphasized as children
are being raised in the home. This involves loving, serving, and supporting other family
members. In King Benjamin’s great address, just after he teaches that we should not
“suffer” that our children go hungry or naked or that they transgress the laws of God he
tells us how to accomplish this: “Ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve
one another” (Mosiah 4:15).

We love those whom we serve. Teenagers who serve their parents by being obedient
and helpful, and who serve their siblings by being kind and helpful, will be much more
likely to be loving and kind toward them.

Children will have more respect and love for their mothers if mothers refuse to be the
family maid. Teach them that doing for themselves and for others is much more
rewarding than having things done for you.

Work in the home may be seen as demeaning because it often means cleaning up after
someone else in a very personal manner. Changing diapers, washing soiled bed sheets,
and cleaning up after a sick child can be viewed as demeaning, or it can be viewed as
humbling and a valuable service to loved ones. Working in the home can help us
“acknowledge our unavoidable interdependence, encouraging and even requiring us to
sacrifice ‘self’ for the good of the whole.
”
Sometimes it is easier, as parents, to do all the work in the home instead of nagging
children until they do it. Or we may give children responsibility only for their own
things, such as their own rooms or toys. But researchers have found it is wise to give
children work opportunities that require them to do something for others. This helps
children to be more concerned for others instead of being self-absorbed.

When we learn to work and do service for others early in our lives, we gain valuable
skills that will serve us later. We learn a strong work ethic and how to be othersoriented
that will help them in all aspects of their lives as they grow. This will also help
them prepare and adjust as they move into the “real world.”