This summer, you may have plans to play, relax, and reconnect with family! Summertime can also be a great opportunity to serve others in our community!
Each Thursday in June and July, my 18-year-old, Emma Grace, will share ideas on how your kids can serve others. Listen on Thursdays at 8:15 a.m. for a new challenge to conquer! We can’t wait to hear how it goes! Let’s make memories and serve others together this summer!
– Tyler
Z88.3 Mornings with Ellis and Tyler
Week One: Serve with Your Stuff
My idea this week is to serve with your stuff. Let me explain. Decluttering! Summer can be a great time to go through your closet, through your bookshelves, taking out what you don’t need anymore and giving to others! It can feel good to get rid of that stuff but also bless others with it. There are many organizations in our community that could use your donation. You could also check with your church. Or, you might even have a friend who could benefit from it.
Week Two: Serve with Your Passion
Summer break is a great time to play, relax, and even reconnect with others. It’s also a great opportunity to serve others in our community. My idea this week is to serve with your passion. My sister and I both love playing volleyball. We play for our school and for a club team. This week we have a volleyball camp but before our session, we’re serving the younger students, helping them with their camp. It’s been nice to encourage the younger players in a sport that I love so much. The challenge this week is to find a way to share your own passions and skills with others this summer, making a positive impact while doing what you love.
Week Three: Serve with Your Church
Our churches are always looking for help in different areas. It could be the nursery, the welcome team, or even the music or AV team. Volunteering can be a great way to meet new friends and connect with others in your church. It also helps fill an important need. This time of year, so many churches especially need help with VBS so that could be a great place to start!
Week Four: Serve with Your Time
If I’m honest, I know I can spend (and waste) a lot of time just being on my phone. So this week, I just want to encourage all of us to maybe put the phone down for a few hours and see who you can serve. I never regret the moments that I go play a game with my grandma or get into a conversation with my neighbors. Sometimes that’s all that serving requires. It takes getting out of your comfort zone and sometimes it’s awkward in the moment but you never know how God will use it in your life and theirs too.
Week Five: Serve Your Family
Whether it’s your parents, siblings, grandparents, or even those who feel like family, those closest to us sometimes get the worst of us. We can take off our masks with them. They’re the ones who see our grouchiness. This week, let’s be intentional about giving them our best. Maybe ask your parents how you can help around the house or give a little more grace to your siblings. Serving one another is contagious.
Week Six: Serve with Your Friend
Everything is always more fun when you’re doing it with friends. There are so many opportunities in our community to serve together and knowing you’ll be doing it with friends just makes it more exciting. Pick something and plan a day for you and your friends to go out and serve. Our youth group is doing a park cleanup together this summer. Plus, I found that when you do things like this, it makes you want to keep putting them on your calendar. You could check with local nonprofits to see how you can help. Try a soup kitchen, homeless ministry, maybe even your church.
Week Seven: Serve with Your Words
We all talk to each other every day, and we can either use our words to build each other up or tear each other down. Serving with your words is exactly what we’re told to do in Ephesians 4:29. It says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” This week, let’s be intentional about who we’re connecting with; maybe reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while or someone God puts on your heart. Your words could be exactly what they need this week.
Week Eight: Serve with your Prayers
As the summer starts to wind down, my idea this week is to serve with your prayers. This is something my family does every year. We take time to pray for our teachers and schools as a new school year begins. Even this year, with me heading off to college, I’m committing to keep praying for them. If you have younger kids, you could have them write a letter of encouragement to their teacher before school starts. You could also pray together as a family for your child’s classroom, principal, or school staff. It’s a simple way to focus on others and ask God to move in our community.