Don’t Say, “Let me know if I can do anything to help.”

In 2011, at just 3 pounds and 3 weeks old, my daughter got an intestinal infection in the NICU. It was the scariest time of our lives as we didn’t know if she would make it. After her second surgery, the nurses told us she was a miracle baby. We are so thankful Jesus healed Brooklyn and our son, Bates, after he got the same infection, and that they fully recovered.

During those grueling 5 months of daily going to the NICU, the last thing I thought about was getting necessary things done like cooking. People rallied around us in practical ways by bringing meals, cards, visiting, doing our laundry/cleaning, praying, and giving food and gas gift cards (we daily drove 45 minutes to the hospital). It was a blessing when people didn’t ask if we needed anything, but just DID something to help.

When someone is going through a tough time, it’s easy to say, “Let me know if I can do anything to help.” But, what really helps is to go ahead and fill a need we see, or to ask specifically what you can do. Is there someone who could use a card from your child to cheer them up? Is there someone who could really use a meal, a visit, or someone to watch their kids for an hour? It’s so great when our kids start looking for needs to fill from the example we set! I bring this up to challenge us with the words in 1 John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18