Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, “Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.  They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.  Zechariah 7:8-12

If there is anything that my parents taught me, it was to have a servant’s heart.  I don’t recall them ever doing it through instruction, but they certainly did it through example.  As a child I remember my mother making lunches for drunks who came to the parsonage from the bar down the street looking for a handout.  Never did she speak a disparaging word against them.  I remember one long night when a man came to our door drunk and my dad spent the entire evening getting him sober.  In the coming weeks he and his family began attending church.   In high school and college, I had the opportunity to work with my mother in a small country hospital.  As a nurse she had great compassion for her patients and, if needed, advocated for them.  At that same hospital I also had opportunities to see my parents work in tandem as Mom was meeting patients’ physical needs while Dad, as a chaplain, was addressing their spiritual needs.  Both served in various ways without the need to be praised as their charity was an outpouring of their faith.