Helping one another.

Last week I had a sister from our church (we call the women in our church sisters, because we believe they are our spiritual sisters) call me up. She told me she was going to be starting a group with a bunch of other women from our church and circle of friends and wanted to invite me. I have to admit I always get nervous when I hear this. I begin to think... what kind of group?  I start feeling the pressure of feeling like I have to join them.  

She went on to explain what we would be doing.  Each week we would go to one of the women's home and help her out on a project.  I admit my first reaction was "I don't want everyone coming here and cleaning my house! How embarrassing."  But then she went on to explain herself that we are all so busy, most of us have young children at home.  We own homes and have all these projects or things we'd like to do, every women has a list of projects.  None of us have time to do all of them. Our husbands have this huge long list as well and he can't get around to it either.  

So her solution to this was get 6-8 women together. Bring all the kids and let them play (or fight) while we all help one of the women finish up or work on one of her big projects that she has going on and can never seem to get done. By the time she was finished telling me her idea, I started catching a glimpse of it and thought Wow! That is an AWESOME idea.

So today was our first day. We went to her house at 9am. (It's only supposed to last about 2 hours) There were about 7 of us.  She wanted to finally finish painting her bedroom. So we all went to work and finished it in an hour and half.  It's now done. Who knows how long it would have taken her to do it on her own with all her young children.  Next week we'll go to someone else's house.

The more I've thought about it the more I realize how wonderful this really is.  I have been wanting to paint some walls since I've moved in. Months later it still hasn't gotten it done with all my kids. What a relief to know that every two months, no matter what happens between those times, I'm guarateed to get one of these projects finished!  What a relief, how fun and exciting!  In two weeks it's my turn and my kid's bedrooms will get painted! Yeah!  It doesn't have to be painting. It can be anything. Next week we are going to another sister's house to help her clean her mudroom from top to bottom.  Another sister wants all her cabinet doors painted.  You could clean people's carpets. I want some canning done that I can't seem to get done with the kids. So they'll eventually help me peel and cut veggies and prepare a bunch of stew mix I want canned.  

In this day and age we are too busy! We don't have enough time to do everything we would like to do. So it gets us down, it frustrates us, and we never see an end to all these projects.  For some reason we would never dare ask someone to help. We assume it's up to us to do it all.  It's not! Imagine how much more would get done if we all helped each other.  Not only that.  Imagine the kind of friends that would come from it.  I loved hanging out with these ladies this morning. We were able to talk about our kids, our families, our ideas for decorating our own homes. We shared tips, and ideas.  We were serving each other. How could we not all become good friends after serving and helping each other every week.

Are you busy? Have you got too many projects that are never getting done?  You don't have to do it by yourself. There are tons of other women out there in the exact same boat, and you could all benefit from helping each other.  Just go ask them if they want to join you...:)

Photo by:basykes