Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave you in Christ.
Gratitude Day 923
When someone embodies a life of service, I pray that we take notes. See what we can learn from them. Try to emulate their example in our lives. Discover why they are committed to a life of service and seek to let their values motivate us to do likewise.
When I think of President Jimmy Carter, this is what I see: a person totally and unequivocally devoted to a life of service. A person who has motivated me to be a better person; one I pray embraces some of the same biblical values that he embodied. Because, my friends, he is such a clear definition of what a person of service and a committed person of faith looks like.
I was in elementary school when President Carter was elected. His daughter Amy and I are the same age, a number of months apart in age. Maybe it was this fascination with a young girl my age having a dad as president of the United States that enamored me and encouraged me to learn about their family and follow her dad as president. When people spoke ill of President Carter, I often wondered how Amy felt about this. He was her dad, a person I assumed she looked up to, just like I looked up to my dad. It would have been so difficult for me to hear awful things about my dad and have often wondered how this colored the rest of her life.
Whether you fully agree with President Carter’s political views or not, I do hope we can agree on one thing: this is a man who fully embodied a life of service before he was elected president and most definitely throughout the rest of his life. He will long be remembered for what he accomplished after his presidency more than what happened during the four years he and his family resided at the White House.
Since his death, I heard a story that resonated with me and struck home. Jimmy and his wife, Roselyn, were on a mission trip. The housing was dormitory style, with the women in one area and the men in a different are. Jimmy and Roselyn were given the sole single room designated for a couple.
On the trip there was a young, freshly married couple who had forgone a honeymoon and chose to participate in this mission trip instead. Once Jimmy and Roselyn realized this, they insisted the young couple use their single room so they could have some privacy while on their “honeymoon.” They chose to sleep in the dormitories with the other mission trip participants.
Interestingly, Hubby Rick and I had a similar experience. Our “honeymoon” was riding on a bus with a bunch of “blue hairs” – Rick’s word for the other participants – and doing mission work in Brownsville, Texas at a homeless shelter. We were the youngest couple on the trip. By a lot. It didn’t take long for others to figure out this was our “honeymoon.” As the bus got closer to Brownsville, the women on the bus realized that Rick and I would not be sleeping in the same room, as the shelter had dormitory housing. They convinced the leaders of the trip to forgo the one room designated for them to share as the leaders of the trip.
It was about 9 pm when we arrived at the shelter. The women scouted out the building and found a storage room plum full of furniture. They convinced their blue-haired husbands to clean this room out and set-up two twin beds in there so the leaders could have a room to sleep in separate from the dormitory. Doing this allowed freed up the other designated room for Rick and me to sleep in.
It had a pull-out sofa with a very bumpy mattress. Rick made homemade “honeymoon suite” signs that he posted on the doors. It also included the only refrigerator with readily access , which is where everyone stored their medications that had to be refrigerated. Every morning, people quietly knocked on the door at 6 am, shuffled in and retrieved their medications out of our honeymoon suite, making sure they did not look our way as we slept on the pull-out mattrass.
I know how special it was that these people went to such great lengths to provide us with our own special honeymoon suite during this mission trip. I can only imagine how the couple who received a honeymoon suite gifted by the Carters felt.
So much has been written and spoken about by world leaders and family members these past number of days since Jimmy’s death. His grandson, Jason, shared personal antidotes and stories of his grandparents, and in particular, his Papa. If you have not listened to his comments, I encourage you to do so. Again, it speaks volumes of his commitment to a life of service.
If you want to be a better person, live a life of service. If you want to change the world one person at a time, choose a life of service. If you want a legacy that lives beyond your time of earth, make sure your life is embedded in helping others through dedication to a life of service.
This is exactly what Jimmy Carter did. To help you understand what a life of service looks like, look at how and why Jimmy Carter did this. By understanding scripture and embodying it. By seeking peaceful resolution in difficult situations. By modeling the values and character Jesus Christ exhibited on earth. By fully loving God and his neighbors and never forgetting to do both.
For years, Jimmy Carter taught a bible study in his small church in Plains, Georgia. One regret of my life is that I did not make it a priority to attend one of these sessions. Often, people were turned away because the space was overflowing; that’s how popular the bible study was. Yet, we can learn so much about Jimmy Carter through his teachings, his example, his life.
A life of service will never be a life that you will regret. I want my life to be rooted in serving other people and pray that this is how I live my life. I am motivated by people like Jimmy Carter who embodied this. Lived it. He made it his life mission to serve others in the name of love and grace of our Heavenly God. May we do so likewise.
Blessings –
Dianne
Grace-filled God – Thank you for placing it in the heart of a person named Jimmy Carter the desire to live a life full of service. May his decades of service inspire us to go and do likewise. As we hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” may we be inspired to follow his example and model. Thank you for the life he lived so well, the people he helped and affected and the values he embodied. Amen.
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One response
Dianne,
I have had the same respect and admiration for President Jimmy Carter. He lived his life with Integrity…living God and loving others throughout his 100 years of life. He was authentic and faithful. Loved grandson’s tribute. Thank you for sharing it.
Your gift of writing is inspiring and thought provoking. I enjoy your daily Simple Words of Faith. I share some with others under my shere of influence that need to hear what you have written.
Your words are a gift from God and do bare fruit that you will never know.
Blessings in 2025. Your friend and grateful admirer, Anita. PS. Don still dries plastic zip lock bags in our garage to re-use. 😀