Do you really care what this bulletin is about? That's a harder question than you might think.

This week I did a few things around the house. I finally put some drywall in the living room to cover up the gaping holes in the side of the house. I harvested my early crop of "rocks" from the side yard (I grow new ones every year, and if I can figure out what kind of weed-be-gone there is for rocks I will buy some!!!). I fixed up a couple arcade games. I even did a little work on my attic.

Do you care that I did these things? Why would you, they don't help or hurt you in any way. [did them all by myself, pretty much for myself. Ever notice that when you do things for yourself you never worry about who gets the credit, or expect any thanks? Do you ever expect someone to thank you for feeding yourself, or dressing yourself, or even breathing? Maybe when we were very small our parents made a big deal about being "little helpers" but that's where it ended.

Expand that out a bit. When you learned to drive, if you're old enough, your parents were probably grateful that they didn't have to lug you around everywhere but other than that do people see you pull up somewhere and rush out to tell you what a great job you did driving? Probably not. Congratulations for reading a book? I don't think so. A hearty backslap for sleeping through the night? Hardly.

Oh, there are extreme times when these "mundane" things deserve praise. If I had broken my leg and taught myself to walk again, you might be excited about the novelty of it but if I insisted on continuing to walk over time you'd just expect it from me.

Maybe that's what the problem is, expectations. Consider. Someone in your family probably does most of the cooking. If it's not you, are you thankful verbally or do you just expect it? You might think you are, but if I asked the cook I might get a different answer! Someone in your family might be the breadwinner. And so it goes.

Hey wait, you might be saying. I don't have time to thank everyone for every little thing, and I'm just not good at it. Fair enough, I guess, but maybe you just need more practice (and duh, so do I!) But what I really want to talk about is credit.

At our jobs, there always seems to be someone who worries about credit. They have this "look at me" attitude, and while they may not mean to be rude about it they often are. Some want ALL the credit, some just want their fair share, but either way they may be worried about it all the time. I suppose all of us do that to an extent, and not just at work. Some people take the tough jobs just so they can reap the big rewards, but after time someone more timid steps up and follows their example. Everyone makes a big fuss about the timid person. Don't we see this all the time, especially with children? Of course we want to encourage the less experienced one, but the one who's been carrying all the water all this time often feels like no one appreciates them. They become burned out. We've had people where I work leave the company for just this thing. Brethren, I've known people who were pillars of their local church drop back into lesser roles with hurt feelings over this, too. I don't know anyone here right now that feels this way, and I pray occasionally that this doesn't ever happen. However, look at how easily it could.

A lady at church prepares the communion for years, and a day comes when her mother is sick. She travels to help her mother as she recovers and after a month comes home. Meanwhile, someone who's never done communion before does it in her absence, and one of the members makes a big deal about it. "Some of the best we've ever had" is very encouraging, and very discouraging. See what I mean? We need to think about what we say, and always do our best to show love. There are many here who help in very non-visible ways who never seem to get any credit at all, yet the work they do is critical. (Once again moms come to mind!)

It takes a lot to always be on guard against saying flippant things that hurt each other, but we need to be so. It's also hard to remember that God is watching every little thing we do, and will reward us for doing good even if those here acknowledge it or not. It's not always gratifying, but we should train ourselves to make service to God, and to one another, satisfying!

Randy