helpfulness

The highest service we can perform for
others is to help them help themselves.

Horace Mann
   

It is high time the ideal of success should be replaced with the ideal of service.

Albert Einstein

      
The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who
will have sought and found how to serve.

Albert Schweitzer

  
We weaken the value of our gifts of service by adding to
them love of praise of others, honor, or material profit.
Our goal is simply the love of God, without any other consideration whatsoever.  Not only does this unseen service
help the individual being served and especially the one
serving, but it also helps people who know nothing of them.  Seeing this act of unselfish giving, they are encouraged
to do little acts of kindness themselves.  They sense that
the real motive behind the service runs far deeper than the service act and are thus inspired in their own faith.

C.M.M.
   

It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile
one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts.
These mean nothing.  It is simply service that measures success.

George Washington Carver

  

The Sweetest Lives
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The sweetest lives are those to duty wed,
Whose deeds, both great and small,
Are close-knit strands of unbroken thread
Where love ennobles all.
The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells;
The book of life the shining record tells.

The love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own life working.  A child's kiss
Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thous renderest.
   
   

   

Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone;
at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.

Elbert Hubbard
  

Doing nothing for others
is the undoing of one’s
self.  We must be purposely
kind and generous, or we miss the best part of existence.
The heart that goes out of itself, gets large and
full of joy.  This is the
great secret of the inner
life.  We do ourselves
the most good doing
something for others.

Horace Mann

  

As a young doctor, I thought that serving life was a thing of drama and action
and split-second judgment calls.  A question of going sleepless and riding in
ambulances and outwitting the angel of death.  A role open only to those who
have prepared themselves for years.  Service was larger than ordinary life,
and those who served were larger than life also.  But I know now that this is
only the least part of the nature of service.  That service is small and quiet and
everywhere.  That far more often we serve by who we are and not what we
know.  And everyone serves whether they know it or not.
   We bless the life around us far more than we realize.  Many simple, ordinary
things that we do can affect those around us in profound ways:  the unexpected
phone call, the brief touch, the willingness to listen generously, the warm smile
or wink of recognition.  All it may take to restore someone's trust in life may be
returning a lost earring or a dropped glove.

Rachel Naomi Remen
   

Service is the rent we pay
for our place on earth.

Shirley Chisholm

Great opportunities to help others seldom come,
but small ones surround us daily.

Sally Koch

One of the things I keep learning is that the
secret of being happy is doing things for other people.

Dick Gregory

At the heart of silence is prayer.
At the heart of prayer is faith.
At the heart of faith is life.
At the heart of life is service.

Mother Teresa
   
The motive, if you are to find inner peace, must be an outgoing motive.
Service, of course--service.  Giving, not getting.  Your motive must be
good if your work is to have good effect.  The secret of life is being of service.

Peace Pilgrim
  
  

Always try to serve others.  Don't even call it helping, call it service
because you are benefited by that.  If someone begs from you
and you give them something, you shouldn't think you are
helping them.  Instead, he or she is helping you.

Satchidananda

helpfulness

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life
that no person can sincerely try to help another without
helping him or herself.  Serve and you shall be served.
If you love and serve people, you cannot, by any hiding
or stratagem, escape the remuneration.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
  

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The value of all service lies in the spirit in which you
serve and not in the importance or magnitude of the service.
Even the lowliest task or deed is made holy, joyous,
and prosperous when it is filled with love.

Charles Fillmore
  
There are those who in the name of God teach that you must
deny yourself and seek only to serve others.  God’s plan is more
beautiful than that.  You were created to express the will of God.
This means that your highest dreams and aspirations are of God.
By seeking these through the ways of the Lord you automatically
do that which is best for all others.

Bruce Gilbert
  
  

One of the great underlying principles governing our life is service.
Most of us have to work, but do we serve?  Do we work
in a spirit of service?  Do we work for Life and our fellows?
Or do we merely work for self, in order to make a living?

Henry T. Hamblin
   

May no one who ever meets me
Have a meeting of little consequence.
May the simple fact of our meeting
Assist in the fulfillment of their wishes.
May I be a lamp
In the darkness of life,
A home for the homeless,
And a servant to the world.

Ancient Buddhist Blessing
    

   

The rare individuals who unselfishly try to serve others
have an enormous advantage--they have little competition.

Andrew Carnegie
   
Articles and book excerpts on serving others:

Three Wondrous Answers      Lev Tolstoy (retold by Thich Nhat Hanh)
   

If you're wondering when you should give to or serve someone else,
I believe in doing it spontaneously, perhaps in a shared moment of
emotion.  Or any time you feel like someone needs your support.
Whether you do it all the time, occasionally, or when the opportunity
arises, just do it.  Reach out and give of yourself and your time.
I have seen, time and again, that happiness and enjoyment arise from
being of service in simple ways.

Lucinda Bassett
   

To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with
joy and a whole heart and a free mind.

Pearl S. Buck
   
You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have
earned your money, unless you have done something
for someone who will never be able to repay you.

Ruth Smeltzer
   




Two new editions now available!
A new expanded edition of Just for Today from Living Life Fully Publications:
Over a year of "Just for Today" passages from our popular e-mail daily quotations, and our new expanded edition includes over 180 reflections on those thoughts.  Full of ideas and focal points that you can use to help to make your day brighter and more fulfilling as you focus on different ways of giving and awareness of the blessings in your life!  Click on the image to the left for the print version.     Kindle Version

   
Also available:  The print edition of Daily Meditations, Year One
One full year's worth of our daily meditations that until now have been available only on our site or through e-mail.  Now you can have the entire first year's worth of daily meditations for just $2.99 on your Kindle.  (Print edition now available here.)
   

   
When you make a choice to be of service to others, you gain the
courage and sense of determination that will fuel your efforts.  With
a solid vision in place, you also become less concerned with your
individual fear or self-doubt and more committed to taking the actions
that will support your larger vision.

Cheryl Richardson
Stand up for Your Life
   

Everybody can be great. . . because anybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve. . . .
You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
   

Giving kids clothes and food is one thing, but it's much more
important to teach them that other people besides themselves
are important and that the best thing they can do with their
lives is to use them in the service of other people.

Dolores Huerta
    

helpfulness
There is a big difference between service and working for the sake of
getting something.  When you serve, you are not tied to the outcome.
You are not invested in what people do as a result of what you do, or
what people think about what you are doing.  You give what you have
because it makes you feel good.  You give what you have because you
know that the unique way in which you do what you do will make someone
else feel good.  In situations when your service is not rewarded by
monetary or public recognition, you are not depleted or defeated.
You are encouraged to take your service to a higher level.
You are inspired to pour more love into your work.

Iyanla Vanzant