The Meaning of Service

Last week, I asked the question, "what does service mean to you?" I had several people comment to provide their thoughts on the topic. Here are what they had to say:

Service means putting someone else's needs before your own - Marisol Lopez

1.  Putting people first

Service means putting someone else's needs before your own. To be a giving person is to be blessed. Never thinking about what you will lose but rather, "what you will gain!" – Marisol Lopez

Service means leading with love and thinking of others. How can I create an experience that will serve? How can I show up in a way that is my most authentic self and genuinely offer/add value to another human? – Hallie Avolio

Service is anything I do to serve others, Steve. When I write content, often twice a day to bring strength and encouragement to others on here or write free books to give away to kids, also thousands of little things you do to lay down your life for others, family, neighbors, your children, someone in the community needing help, a stranger at the register short of money, taking meals to someone after surgery or a move, running the rider over a neighbor's yard because they are sick, all the little things that you go out of your way to do to make someone's life easier. – Liz Franklin

Service is thinking less of self and more of others. The intent behind the action is always the real gift ?? – Alison Coates

Service means allowing others to shine in their light and celebrate their unique talents – Lauren Ammon

If I am a server, my service's end product should be complete satisfaction of the one I serve. Secondly, as a server, I am / should be willing to suffer and sacrifice self-interest in the course of service – K.V. Simon

Service is about giving back in any way you can. – Ezekiel Ekata

Service is about sharing my time and energy with someone without asking for something in return. – Leen Youssef

2. Helping without expectation

Service means opening up space for others to be who they are and meeting them where they are. – Cheryl Czach

Service means serving others in its simplest form. It's volunteering to do something for others or helping fill in an unmet need. – Shaema Talib

Service can be pivotal whereby you the receiver of service in a restaurant, spa, valet, etc., or you can be the one rendering a service. Either way, the focus must be on the customer and their needs when fulfilled according to the offering. – Viloshni Moodley

The value of service is the purpose and meaning it brings to your life

- Jacqueline Way

3. Leads to purpose and meaning

The value of service is the purpose and meaning it brings to your life on so many levels, and people spend their entire life looking for the purpose in their life. Sometimes people think it is a job that they do, or it is a family they raise or a life they have lived, but really what people can understand is if you want to add meaning and purpose to your life when you add service to your life it will move you toward that purpose and meaning that most people on our plant are still searching for today. – Jacqueline Way

Service is not just about donating money - it is about adding value to others. – Gina Riley

Service is all about building other people up while staying true to our values. – Parul Banka

Willingness to share a portion of your heart with others through serving others can be in many forms, through kind words, gestures, monetary or otherwise. As long as it carries your love ?? and kindness, service is the best form of fulfilling life's purpose! – Ruheena Kabir

Giving and seeing others' needs is one of the most significant impacts we can have on the world – Shannon Bowling

Using your time, talent, and treasure to help others. – Kristin Sherry

4. Using your gifts to help others

I believe the gifts we've been given are to enhance the lives of other people. That's service. Using your time, talent, and treasure to help others. – Kristin Sherry

Service is the contribution of your innate abilities or your learned growth, which transcends you to help others. – Jared Wiese

Service is an imprint that you leave for or on others and something that comes from the heart and connects your values to others. – Heather Suerdieck

Service equals offering support. The support can help others reach their goals. – Gracie Ruth Melendez

Service reminds us to be grateful and kind. – Laura Rivchun

5. Service brings gratitude

Service makes me a better person. It touches my compassionate side. Service reminds us to be grateful and kind. Service is a HUGE TEACHER. My life without service would not feel as enriched. Service is about community. We're all residents on this planet. – Laura Rivchun

How true, getting outside our heads, and being able to understand our connection through the lens of service is so fulfilling – Caroline Cares

Service means having the opportunity to provide joy for someone else. – Jennifer Bulkley

Summary

Service lays our lives down for others, putting them before ourselves. Service gives gifts of help to others without expecting something in return. When using our talents to lift others, our service helps them to move forward to a better place. Serving fills the heart with gratitude and joy in both the receiver and the giver. Service leads to a life filled with purpose and meaning through the actions and opportunities given to us by meeting others' needs. Whom have you served today?