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Service

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #86: Secret Sisters/Brothers with the Elderly

Posted on April 17, 2026

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 86 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

This one’s great to do anytime of year, but summertime is prime when the kids are out of school.

Pass out a questionnaire to your elderly members. Ask them about their favorites: home items, snacks, scents, office supplies, shopping venues, colors and hobbies Make sure you ask about birthday and anniversary dates.

Then distribute the completed questionnaires to your young people. (Teens love to do this!) Young people need structure, so assign specifically here. Make sure the young partner is anonymously remembering his/her older “partner” with a card or small gift at least every two weeks. You will need to take five minutes of class time or family Bible time each week to be sure this is getting done. (It’s somewhat easier if you are doing this with your own children, of course, but the “peripheral” kids in the youth group may be the most blessed in the gifting.) Our kids live in a world of largely irresponsible youth, so you will need to help and bolster, at least at first. Sometimes each child will need to take more than one adult. Sometimes each adult will have multiple young people who are “gifting” them. Surpluses on both sides are fine; even great. This is one secret gifting program, though, that is not reciprocal. Those who receive the little gifts are exclusively the elderly.

At the end of the gifting period–perhaps after about three months, plan a meal for the kids to reveal their identities to the elderly partners. This time the gift will be signed and opened in front of the young gift-giver. This day is the most fun of all. There’s lots of encouragement to go around on both sides and, just like that, the congregation becomes less age-segregated and closer.

I’m saying today….do this one! Empathy for the age-related challenges that elderly people face is largely missing in the teens of our world.  Christianity calls our teens to be holy/set apart in the way they view elderly people, particularly their brothers and sisters in Christ.

You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord (Lev.19:32).

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5)

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #79: Tag-Along Toddlers

Posted on October 2, 2025

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 77 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

This one’s a win for everyone involved. Take your older kids to visit a widow or widower. But first, let your older child call a young mom in the congregation and see if her two or three-year old can come visiting at the designated time with you and your older. Arrange for car seat swap-off and installation and let the toddler proudly ring the door bell with a plate of cookies in hand. Be sure you tell your child that “we are training this little one to serve.” You will serve a very happy widow. The little one will be blessed in the training. Your older one will have fun with the toddler, while learning to teach and serve. (Toddlers are always funny.) The young mom will have a (likely) much-needed break. And you, Mom, are training your future care-giver, to love and respect the opportunities to serve that she/he will be afforded through life. Everyone involved will hope this is not an isolated incident. (Well, YOU may have a moment or two when you think, “What was I thinking?” but you will quickly get past it!)  Relationships that will serve your child well are being formed. This one is a five-star opportunity. (I can hardly believe it, but there are parents who are doing this one now, who were the toddlers in the car-seat for our family’s tag-along escapades….It’s the morning of service that affects the next generation!)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The List: “Babies Have to Grow Up.”

Posted on August 22, 2025

photo credit: Traci Sproule

 

Polishing the Pulpit is in the books in Missouri and now in Tennessee. I am still in the hotel in Sevierville. Although I distributed hundreds of Digging Deep books, there’s a sense in which I’ll be going home with much more than I brought with me. If you attended, you will (or have), too. My heart is more full of the will to serve. My head is to capacity of ideas to facilitate the spread of HIS fulness. My spirit is just so very grateful to Him for the way he has encouraged through His people. I want to be better and there are about seven thousand other people who have the same will. The Colleys are deeply indebted to Allen Webster, David Barker, Luke Griffin, Mark Howell, Eddy Gilpin and the elderships that have overseen, for the 30-plus year commitment to serving the church through this, the most vibrant and effective event for Christ, of which we have ever been a part. What a privilege to have been in attendance this year!

Some have requested this list from the lecture “Babies Have to Grow Up”. It’s a list of some of the things we can do to help our brand new sisters to be nurtured; to have the spiritual needs of infant Christians met as we help them “grow up” in Him. If you are one of the many faithful women who are working in “labor and delivery” in the kingdom of Christ, you know that there are some pretty volatile days after the new birth (John 3). Some of our baby sisters are needing  spiritual life support. 

Watch here for a few installments of ideas—ideas to help “grow” the babies from the self-focused, crying stages of infancy, to the happy, serving stages of spiritual maturity. 

  1. Stamped and addressed cards. Sometimes you may have studied with the sweet young sister and others do not know her nearly as well as you do. Address a stack of ten note cards to the baby sister (not all one pack of cards—make them different). Get someone to help you, if possible, to address, so that all the handwriting will not be exactly the same.  Stamp them. Take them to worship with you and give them to dependable sisters and ask them to write personal notes of encouragement in the cards, and mail them. You may even want to put a “date to send’ in pencil on the back the envelope, so that all the cards will not be received in the same week.
  2. When you study with the next person you’re trying to bring to Christ, invite the new sister to come along. The blessings here are several and they are solidifying. 
  3. Make sure you KEEP studying with the new sister. Ask her to read, with you, a book of the Bible—say the book of John. Maybe just three chapters each week and then meet up weekly, if possible, to discuss the verses read and take lessons for her life. Perhaps your elders, like mine, will love for you to meet with new sisters, during one of the Bible class times, when everyone is already there at the building, and talk with her, about the scriptures. 
  4. Most of us know what “secret sisters” is: when each lady is designated a certain sister for whom she will do acts of kindness in secrecy, until the end of the month or quarter or year. If you do this program, be sure your “baby sister” gets one of the MOST spiritual sisters in the whole game. This kind of sister will send spiritual messages, secretly purchase and give spiritual books that are sound, and gift her with coffee cards with the specification that she take a sister to the coffee shop, etc…
  5. Call or text her often. Set your phone reminder to do this. Many times you will say “Just checking in. Is the cough better?” or “Hey! Did you make it back home?” or “Just making sure you know about the fellowship meal.” But sometimes, be sure you say “How is your walk with the Lord?” or “Do you feel like you are growing, spiritually?” 

More next time! 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #78: Nursery Sanitation Crew

Posted on March 6, 2025

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 78 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

Somebody in your congregation, if you are a young church, is already taking the time and effort to sanitize the nursery class each week. Every little plastic car that rolls on the table while they are singing “The wheels on the car go round and round…on the way to Bible class/“ has to be rubbed down with a germ-killing wipe. The linens on the changing table have to be washed and replaced. The table -top that has their little bucket safety seats has to be disinfected and the little clocks they hold during “Tick-tock, time for Bible class” do, too. The diaper pail has to be emptied.

Why not ask the nursery teacher if your teens can do this job for a month of Sundays? You can supervise them if they are young and inexperienced. It’s a great time to teach them how to sanitize while teaching them how to serve. (This one is on almost the same level as the washing of feet in the upper room. It’s not a pretty job. That pail has a stench. But it’s a really necessary job.) This service is valuable in the development of your young “department of sanitation.”

Then at the end of your month, leave a little surprise on the table for the teacher:  a little goody basket or a candle or a box of chocolates.  Include  a note that tells her how much she’s appreciated. After all, she may be the one who is changing the diapers AND emptying the pail. Include this verse in a card.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14)

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #77: Cinnamon Rolls for Public Service Workers

Posted on February 26, 2025

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 77 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

I’ve yet to see the police department, fire station crew (volunteer or paid), or rescue unit that does not love homemade cinnamon rolls delivered to the station or precinct headquarters. You can make these at home with your own kids and do all the delivery work yourselves, or you can do this as a group project with several kids and deliver as a youth group. It can be a project for your homeschoolers, as well. The important thing is to let the kids go in there with hearts and words of gratitude to those men and women who are working to keep our communities safe.  It goes without saying that you will also want to include an invitation to visit the church with times and/or info about  special events or seminars included. You may want to even let each child deliver a hand-written note of thanks, as well.

Alternately, prepare breakfast at the building with your kids and teens and invite all the public service workers to a come-and-go breakfast. I’ve seen this be wildly successful on a Saturday morning. Just be sure you “cover-up” the fire and  police department with flyers ahead of time. Have the preacher or an elder call them, as well, to issue an invitation. This method is especially good in small towns where the department families know the church families. It fosters a great relationship between the church and the community.It’s great to put a sign out on the day of the event with this title  “Thank-you for your service! Free breakfast today for our police, fire and rescue workers. Come on in!” Have kids at the door to welcome and have them during the milk and juice ar helping with the coffee counter.

Here’s a recipe from The Pioneer Woman that I have made (with a few tweaks) and loved:

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a11914/cinammon-rolls/

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #76: Sewing/Cooking Classes

Posted on January 24, 2025

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 76 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

I remember being in middle school when I was growing up in the Adamsville, Alabama church of Christ. I doubt that  any adult guided Laura and Marsha as they did this, but rather, I think they took it upon themselves to sort of mentor a group of three middle school girls.  I’m 65 years old and I still fondly remember the outings, sleepovers and service projects that these older (11th-12th grade) Christian girls planned for us. Laura’s parents owned a small apartment complex and they would let us have a vacant one for  our sleepovers. Those were the days. These very cool (and godly)  teenagers took time for us; and we (the middle-schoolers) thought we had arrived.

You should encourage your high school daughters to do this. They can be game-changers in the worlds of kids who are younger. Specifically, if your teens know how to cook, put together a little cooking class on a Saturday afternoon and just let the “older”s instruct the “younger”s as the group prepares just one dish or cake or pie. Make it for a specific service project: for a widow visit, a hospital waiting room delivery or a fire station appreciation gift. Let the older girls drive the younger ones to deliver. This is a first taste of  service independently from parents, but what a great way to launch out.

Alternately, do the same thing if your teen girls know how to sew or embroider or crochet.  Gather the needed tools and get together in the fellowship hall or at home. Let the “older”s share the skill with “younger”s and then deliver together. Middle school is a tough time and, for some, it can get a bit dark–even depressing. If you are an older teen girl or if you are the mom who can encourage an older teen girl to be a blessing to those just three or four years behind, by all means, reach out! It takes minimal organization and a little time. Possibly, the people who will thank you most are the moms of those middle-school girls.

I said that I doubted that Marsha and Laura were directed by any adult. But now that I think back about it, it could have been my own mother, trying to get me through some challenging days, who suggested to the older girls that they “take us under their wing.”  My mom was the 5th and 6th grade girls’ Bible class teacher. She could have very well put the bug in the ears of those older girls, who had also been in her class a few short years before. My mom was creative like that!   You can be, too!