Service with a smile

Scott Schwab
Today we were going to have a guest post on their results from the 8 week challenge, but it may take a couple more days of coaxing. We are going to hold strong with having two people post before Chandi and I post. We did however have someone that posted a comment and wanted to know the next challenge. Let us know your name and then we can plan on you for next time. I did notice something interesting today. I finally had a chance to pay it forward and it came with a lot of satisfaction. My friend and I were walking around this evening and saw a women raking some leaves. We asked if we could help and she told us no. She persistently told us no and that she didn't want to put us out. We continued to be persistent and the battle began. We started helping her and she stopped and said, "nobody has ever done anything nice for me." I was floored and said you are kidding me. She responded that she is a social worker and is always serving other people. We continued to talk and find that she had a bad back and that she was going to have to try and get to the leaves on Saturday. The more we talked we found that she has never asked for help, but has certain things that are hard for her to do. I have found that there are many people including ourselves that need a little help but are not asking. I do not believe that I changed this ladies life, I do believe that she changed mine. I realized that by simply going out of my way to help, that I was the one that benefited. Not only was I able to speak to a person that I usually wouldn't, but I learned through her experiences and her life. Plus her mountain of leaves was a great workout for us. Now she can pass it on. The final thought is this; people change through service, and mentally, emotionally, and physically there are many benefits to service.