Does committing to serve count?

Day 17 - June 27

I really wasn’t feeling well today. I suffer from chronic sinus infections and I think I’ve been fighting one since my trip to New Orleans (if you’re counting that’s about two weeks). Anyway, I went to work and did what I needed to intending to then go home and rest. Well, Ryan wanted to meet me for dinner and since he’s leaving town for a week I thought it would be a nice treat for us both. We met at PF Chang’s and I ate from their Gluten-free menu (I’ll discuss gluten-free in another post). We had a good dinner and followed that up with ice cream and some errands. During the evening I managed to lose my debit card. Needless to say this was not convenient (we do not use credit cards) and I don’t carry cash or checks with me. After some frantic searching I decided to give it up and called the bank to cancel the card. Thankfully I had a backup replacement I’d ordered months ago. That’s an entirely different story for another time.

Well, the title of the post is for this reason: During dinner, Ryan mentioned again how badly his neck was bothering him (I suspect a stupid-boy stunt sometime in the past week, but that’s beside the point) and asked me to mow the yard for him. So my question is this - if I commit to serve on one day but complete the service on another does it count? Well, I wasn’t all that comfortable with the idea at first (not the committing part, of course I’d agreed to mow, but the timing part). After considering it for a time and prayerfully seeking God, I was reassured that the commitment was as good as the completion part. Now, I am not saying that I will do this often, but under these particular circumstances (not feeling well, the timing of the evening and errands making it impossible to mow before dark, etc) I feel as though God honors that commitment. Hey, and I will tell you another thing, that commitment is more motivating than any other nagging or other reminder I can think of. I was not going to let the sun go down one more time without completing the task! It got me off the couch for sure. And while I was at it I mowed our elderly neighbors’ front yard as well. I really don’t like seeing our mowed grass next to their long grass. I think it may be the perfectionist in me.

What do you think? Did I cheat on this one or was the commitment enough?

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on 02 Jul 2008 at 1:39 pm 1.TARA BISHOP said …

I think all of this is between you and Christ, so if you prayerfully made your decision and you were reassured by HIM, then I think in this instance there’s certainly no cheating. And you’re right, I bet making a commitment like that is much more of a motivator than nagging EVER would be.

I’m so proud of you, not to mention inspired and challenged. I’m so blessed to have you in my life!

Tara