what's it like having a twin

Me, our older sister Ginny, and my twin sister Betsy

Today is my birthday, so typically it's a day everyone celebrates me!  But since I was born, I've had to share that day with someone else: my twin, Betsy.  When we were little, we were so very different.  We looked different: blond hair and blue eyes vs. dark black hair and brown eyes.  We acted differently: tomboy vs. girly-girl who even sewed her own prom dress and winter wool coat in high school. You might think that we were so different, that we wouldn't be close, but I'm here to tell you all the fantastic reasons why it's GREAT to have a twin (especially MY twin!)

• Someone to ride the school bus with you on the first day of school at each new school
• Someone to walk into any new situation with you as a kid
• Someone to let you borrow her books if you leave yours at school 
• Someone who would fall asleep while you were talking when you were in college...  and who still falls asleep while you're talking on the phone to her now because you live in different states... or who falls asleep while you're talking to her in person when visiting
• Someone to drive two and a half hours from her college to yours during her exam week to help you pack up your belongings when your exams were over (and who sprained her ankle helping you, so that you had to drive to her college and hang around to drive her to her finals with her sprained ankle)
  
  
  
• Someone to drive you home from her college the week of Thanksgiving (while you were visiting her) because you got mono and were too sick to drive home (only to have to come back to take her tests and then drive home three days later)
• Someone to share a car with you your senior year in high school after you totaled your car
• Someone to laugh with hysterically when you got caught in a rainstorm going on a ski lift in Gatlinburg, TN on summer vacation 
• Someone to help you chaperone a canoeing trip when you are a brand new teacher - and get caught in another downpour for hours....
• Someone to help you figure out how to set up a tent because your borrowed tent has a stick in the place of one of the tent poles...
• Someone to call when you're just really frustrated with being a mom and all the messy parts of being a mom
• Someone who cried when you got married - both super happy for you but at the same time knowing that a certain chapter in your life had ended
• Someone who will have "bad" days on the same days - even though living in a different state
• Someone who cheers you up when you're sad or down
  

Samuel: the heart of a servant

Today I asked Samuel to take out the crock with the smelly, starting to decompose compost from the kitchen.  No one likes that job.  Everybody hates it because instead of taking it out every day, we tend to procrastinate and wait until the crock is completely full.  So I asked Samuel to take it out.  I didn't feel like having any back talking or listening to any whining.  (Don't worry - I will ask the kids who back talk or whine as well - but today I didn't.)  Here is a picture of Samuel taking it to the spot in the edge of the woods where we dump our compost:

Samuel is my servant son.  He is quick to obey without whining or back talking, even when it's not his favorite job.  Don't get me wrong, there are still times that he drives me crazy (like yesterday when he took over 6 hours - 6 HOURS! - to complete one day's math assignment.)  But overall, when I ask him to do something specific to help me out, he does it.  And this is from a 12 year old!  So I find myself, on days when I am weary, choosing to ask Samuel for help.  Help your little brother go to the bathroom and wash his hands... help me fill the water bottles before we go to soccer practice...

Last night when I backed the van out of the garage, I saw toys that were on Sean's side of the garage.  I stopped the van.  "Somebody get those toys put away so Dad doesn't run over them, " I directed.  Who jumped out of the van and put away the toys right away?  Samuel.  (He hadn't even been out there playing with the toys earlier; he had been inside working on that dreaded math assignment.)  Just another example of how he is quick to serve others.

Samuel has a servant's heart.  You might think that doesn't sound good - after all, who wants to be a servant?  It's not something you would normally think to put on a resume as a strength.  But having a servant's heart isn't a bad thing.  Jesus said that we should have a servant's heart.  And then He showed what that looked like by first washing his disciples feet and then by dying on the cross for each of us.  (Neither of which He deserved to do.)

Samuel's response to my requests makes me think about my heart.  There are lots of times when I don't have a servant's heart.  I want others to do things for me.  I think I deserve certain things, that I have certain rights (after all, I am an American, right?)  But then I think of Samuel, who actually reflects Jesus' heart in his service to me and others.  And I realize that I really want to have that type of heart, willing to put others before myself, to give for the benefit others.  How about you?  Do you find yourself having a servant's heart?  Or do you have someone in your life who reflects Jesus' servant heart?