Heart of Servants

There are days I have with my daughter that I sit back, smile and marvel at what the Lord is doing in her little life. Yesterday was one such day and even today she was just so sweet and I treasure such moments with her! Karis, since she was old enough to talk (so pretty much the past year and a half), has brought much joy wherever she goes and lights up a room with her big grin! She has also begun to have a heart of service, which Steve and I can only attribute to the Lord's working in her life, because only He can make a heart be filled with love for others. We love watching her play in the little toy kitchens at other's houses (because we dont have a play kitchen at our house she especially enjoys the treat of being at someone's house who does have one) as she busily puts together "tea" for everyone and then proceeds to serve all the guests who will accept her cups. It warms my heart because we have prayed and continue to pray that she be filled with a love for God and a love for others. She never wants anyone to be left out of what's happening and always wants to know who everyone is that we see walking in stores, new friends at the park, people driving in cars next to ours, etc. In these moments its easy for me to be a proud mom, but rather I want to turn my affection and adoration from my daughter to the One who created her and entrusted her to our care. Only God could create such a fascinating little person and only He can draw her to Himself, and only He could give her a heart of service. So I praise Him who is at work in her little heart and continue to pray for complete heart transformation, that her affections will be for Christ and in turn that her life's desire would be to serve Him by loving others well. Her actions of "serving" others is a constant reminder and challenge for me to be loving others well, to prefer others before myself as Christ so perfectly modeled. This made me think of a song written by Shane and Shane called, "Heart of Servants" that goes like this:
Jesus, You were
Jesus, You are
Jesus You will always be a perfect servant to us, a perfect servant to death, even death on a cross.
Give us the picture of Your face  show us the measure of Your grace reveal the love of the Father / put within us tenderness / release from us all selfishness / we'll consider them better / we're Yours / give us hearts of servants
I love learning and allowing the Lord to root deeper lessons into my heart through the daily interactions with my daughter, Karis (truly God's GRACE in my life).