Over the past few years, one of the most requested topics on my speaking circuit has been a lesson in which I list a hundred ideas for training our kids to be servants. Service oriented kids grow up to be productive adult servants in the kingdom and it’s those people to whom the Lord will say, “Come ye blessed of my Father,” according to Matthew 25. So it matters if I’m making a real effort, as a mom, to put the heart of a servant in my child. For this reason, I’ve decided to devote a post, every now and then, to a service suggestion—a simple idea for moms to make their homes busy service centers for young hearts and hands. I’d love to hear from those of you who try them. So here goes:
Laundry You Can Love!
The only thing that can possibly be better than having the extreme privilege of washing the robes or clothing in which people have been baptized and the towels from that sweetest of all experiences is doing it WITH your children.
This month is my month to help out in the baptism changing room in the case that anyone wants to be baptized in the middle of one of our worship times. It’s a great privilege to get to have any part in that burial with Jesus and the resurrection to walk in a new life with Him. I’m surely hoping I get to do some laundry this month!
But, if you have children, bringing home that laundry basket, sitting your toddler up on the washing machine as you stuff them in and letting that child pour the detergent in as you talk about what that person was doing in the water—that’s a priceless opportunity. It’s one I hope you get to do more than once as your children grow up. You get to talk about how that, just like Jesus was buried in the ground after he died, we get to be buried in the water, just for a minute…and when we are, that’s when our sins are washed away. And then, we get to be raised up…just like Jesus. And when we are raised up, the Bible tells us we walk in a new life (Romans 6:4). You will then get questions about what living a “new life” means, and you will get to show your child some practical differences in people who are living for the Lord and people who are not.
Putting those clothes in the dryer, you can talk about the specific person that was baptized and think about ways you can help that person to grow strong. Folding the clothes and putting them in the basket, you can talk about others that you are trying to teach and how that you are praying that there will be more towels to wash. You can even take a minute to let your child pray for that with you.
Let your child help you carry the basket back and place the towels on the shelf. As you place them there, don’t forget to tell your child to keep on praying that we’ll get to do this again very soon.
So go ahead. Be the laundry volunteer. And start praying that there’s lots of laundry to do!
