Norman Maclean learned the discipline, grace and rhythm of life fly-fishing with his Scottish Presbyterian father. I learned it doing windows for Mesdames (I understand that’s the plural form of Mrs.) Tracy, Smith and Lake with my Easter and Christmas only Methodist dad of Scandinavian and British descent.

If spring was in the air, so was the commingled aroma of dusty old screens and WindexTM. Mesdames Tracy, Smith and Lake were all widows who attended the Methodist Church in our small Michigan town of 1200 or so. Although he wasn’t much for the Sunday sermon and offering he was one for works of service and I, as his first born and only son, got to come along.

We wouldn’t have to load the truck because each of these fine ladies had a garage full of assorted implements left behind by their husbands. We would pull into their driveways to bright smiles peering from behind front curtains and dirty storm windows. After a few pleasantries, ice tea and cookies we would begin. The ladders weren’t always the most sturdy but since none of their husbands had died falling off a ladder we deemed them usable and safe. We took turns hosing down the screens and removing the storm windows. This was pretty much a work of silence. This was before ear buds and MP3 players and I knew better than to ask to bring a radio. Not much chit chat between my dad and I, but we worked methodically and efficiently with occasional interruptions of gratitude. Only one of these ladies was ever so demanding – she had her own special window cleaning concoction and insisted that we use newspaper instead of rags. Long before I heard the phrase “the customer is always right” I learned it from my dad.

I can’t say I looked forward to these excursions of service, but these ladies did have a way of breaking the teenage chip on my shoulder. While my dad wasn’t much of a churchgoer, I must say I learned a bit of “true religion” from him that has helped to form me into the man I am today.

April 18 – 24 is National Volunteer Week. One of the ways we can nurture our children’s development is by modeling and including them in acts of service.

Marian Wright, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, tells of growing up in a household that valued service to others and how these values helped to shape her current work. In her home, “children were taught,” she says, “not by sermonizing, but by personal example – that nothing was too lowly to do.” In her book, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, she writes about a debate she remembers her parents having when she was eight or nine. Was Marion too young to go with her older brother Harry to clean the bed and bedsores of a sick, poor woman? She remembers, “I went and learned just how much the smallest helping hands and kindness can mean to a person in need.”

I don’t believe serving others is primarily about teaching our children something, but I do believe that when we include them in caring for others and our environment we are opening a window to a worldview that encourages the exploration of meaning, ethics and life purpose beyond themselves. And that’s something I’m sure my dad and Mesdames Tracy, Smith and Lake would agree.

Follow this link for the Denver Post’s 2010 Volunteer Guide and this link for other service opportunities.