November 1, 2006: What can I do to serve you?

My kids have been horrible little selfish beasts lately--to each other, that is. Among friends, my daughter is known for her kindness, my youngest is known for his friendliness, and my oldest is, well, funny. But at home, they've been bickering, quarreling, and complaining. So we have declared this to be What Can I Do to Serve You Week at SmallWorld.

The goal: to help them toward developing a true servant's heart, not just a public servant's heart.
The method: each day, before 6 p.m., each member of our family must ask every other member this question: "what can I do to help you?"
The rules: the servant must ask pleasantly and the one-to-be-served must reply graciously and within reason. (In other words, "clean my entire room" is not an option, but "help me pick up these Legos" is acceptable.) Each person must keep a written record of their daily acts of service, and we will share them at the dinner table each evening. Randy and I are included in this, of course, as both servants and recipients.

So far, Laurel diverted one big fight by using, "What can I do to help you?" to Duncan instead "Get out of my chair!" Jesse helped Duncan by retrieving the dog from outside, a job which Duncan particularly dislikes. We'll see in a week how our grand experiment worked.