Say Yes

I made dinner for my BIL & SIL’s family Monday night.  She was due with baby #4 any day, her hubby was way sick, and her son broke his arm the night before.  When I called to see if I could bring dinner, she said, “I would normally say no, but yes, I would love for you to bring us dinner.”

I secretly hoped she would say ‘no’ because I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull off this unexpected service with my busy schedule that day.  But where there is a will, there is a way.

I sacrificed my shower (and my self respect) to fit in a Costco run.  Costco shoppers, my kids’ dentist, and many a neighbor saw me in my stinky workout clothes and greasy hair for the rest of the day.

I spent two hours making Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (my best yet I might add) complete with homemade peasant bread, steamed broccoli, cut up watermelon and ooey-gooey Scotcheroos for dessert.  My husband grilled up the chicken and delivered the dinner to their home.  We didn’t get to eat dinner with dad that night because the delivery would take 40 minutes and the kids needed to eat.  They were melting down.

Now I sound like the heroine of the story, right?

Wrong.  The real heroine was my sister-in-law. Because it takes more courage, humility and strength to receive dinner than it does to bring it.

There are volumes of human nature in her simple phrase, “I would normally say no”. Don’t most of us, when someone asks to do something for us, say “no” or “you don’t have to do that” or “I’m okay”?  Few people say, “Yes, I need help.”  And we do this because of pride.  It takes humility to receive / accept service from others.

Sometimes life gets so hard that we have no other option than to accept service, but humility and character are grown in those moments when we really could do it ourselves, but somebody has offered, and we choose to let them help and receive their service.

And don’t forget, when you say yes to service, you are allowing someone else to serve.  You are giving someone else the opportunity to grow and stretch.

I am proud of my SIL for saying “yes, bring me dinner.  I could really use it.”   She could really use dinner and I could really use the stretching.