I think really dedicating myself to one simple thing per day is very achievable, you know? Having done that for 30 days straight, like it feels really good to have accomplished

a very simple goal that was very achievable. But like, I dedicated my effort every day to doing that.

Hi everyone. My name is Jared.

I'm a husband, a father, and an army veteran.

At times in my life, where I was the most happy were definitely the times where I was most actively involved in serving other people on a personal level. So over the last 30 days, I've really tried to have a laser focus and keep my head on the swivel for targets of opportunity to just serve and minister as much as possible. And the habit that's formed is really made the world of difference in my happiness.

So that's what I'm going to make a very conscious effort daily to be present in someone else’s life. And I know that it's going to bring me a lot of happiness

and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you.

There's Courtney and the kiddos walking to the beach from our house.

There's the beach over there just a block away. Super close.

Are you gonna run in there? No.

Anyways, so typically I'm standing in line somewhere, I'm on my phone just kind of like zoning out or whatever. But today I kept it in my pocket and I looked around and I met a smiling face right in front of me—or two faces.

It was an older couple who was here visiting the island for business.

And, you know, they asked a little about me and my family, and I told them about our kids and my wife and stuff. And they’re like, “Man, we miss those days so much.” Like, what a great time of life. I don't know. It just made me it reminded me to be more grateful for what I have, and I think it probably reminded them of like, really fond memories from when their kids were younger.

So anyways, we became new friends. And it was a good chat.

The point is not necessarily that any of us are so smart that like,

when we go minister to someone that we’re going to have all the answers that they need to like

overcome their challenges in life. But rather,

it’s just the simple act of like a touch point with them, you know, the simple act of reconnecting and being with them and being present and spending time and communicating and just showing love.

That's what Heavenly Father wants us to do.

When I just get on social media to just kind of like scroll and look at it, like I end up kind of comparing myself to people

and it makes me kind of anxious and depressed.

But on the flip side, what I've kind of learned over the last few days is when I reach out to people and communicate with them over social media like direct contact,

it's just joy.

The person that I reached out to today for my challenge is a good friend of mine. We talked for about an hour over lunch. So I think the conversation was very give and take. Like we each had something to offer each other and we had opposite problems and we had opposite strengths, which made it nice because we could support each other in that way. But I think that's part of like what emulating Christ is all about is just being there for one another and supporting each other through our trials

and not always giving each other solutions to our problems or solutions to our trials.

Today I made a new friend at church.

He’s only been going to our Church for about a year now.

It's important for everyone to have community.

When I think of my church community, it's like a community in Christ. It's like, you know, we're all there as brothers and sisters, you know, trying to live our best life and kind of be proud of the life that we've lived.

Today was a little more solemn of an experience than normally

I would like. I saw a news article about a couple of

Army helicopters that crashed in Alaska and three of the four pilots that crashed died.

I, I knew immediately that my buddy would know them. So I gave him a call today just to see how he’s doing and

I'm glad that I called him because I think it's been a very emotional couple of days for him losing friends and,

you know, dealing with—just dealing with that, you know. I think being present there, like being present for someone in their moment of need or like their hour of, like, sadness. Is like how God kind of works through

me, through us. And it’s like it can be a very strong testimony to the person in need that like, wow, God really is aware of me.

This challenge has really helped me. Like, I don't know, just kind of feel loved, I guess. I don't know. I just I'm really grateful for the people that God has put in my path, and I'm really grateful for opportunities to serve. But I'm also really grateful for people that, you know, reach out and help serve me a little bit. And I think I’ve definitely felt that throughout this challenge.

It’s been, it’s been really good. It’s day 19 of my 30-day challenge.

With your five-year-old. With my five-year-old son, Julian.

We are camping in Volcanoes National Park on the big island of Hawaii.

But we are camping here and we made some neighbors whose stove wasn't working. So I gave him mine to go use with his fuel. And anyways, we we—

It worked and they got to eat dinner and we had a nice little conversation

and just made some friends over a campfire basically. And it was just good to like be able to help someone.

Hi, everyone. It's Jared. And I believe it’s day 20 of my 30-day challenge. This is Julian. Hi.

My travel buddy, my oldest son. We’re in Hawaii, Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. So anyways, day 20 was all about Julian—being a better, more intentional father for him. Julian, what was your favorite part of this trip?

Going into that cave.

Oh, that was cool. We walked through a lava tube.

It's a tube that basically a cave where lava has flowed before underground.

Really I think my goal is to be more intentional

with each of my kids and being their father and not letting work and stuff

and the stress of life keep me from having meaningful experiences with them. So hopefully this has been a fun trip. Good.

I just got back to the island of Oahu this morning.

I was walking down a trail in the national park and I saw two people who—walked across people who were speaking German.

I lived there for two years. And I love talking to German people.

And so I walked up and I said hi in German and made a little conversation and, you know, asked them where they were from and what they were doing and all that stuff. And um, anyways, the conversation lasted about five minutes, but it was cool because they looked at me like, “Holy smokes, like,

what is this American doing speaking German to us in Hawaii? Like, this is so crazy.” You never know when the Lord will like,

have us cross paths with someone that, like, maybe the only connection in the world is the fact that we speak German. And maybe that’s how He uses us and our talents to send us to the people who need help or who need a friend in ways that like we can’t immediately see it, but that may have been the only way to connect with someone.

And that’s how the Lord sends ministering angels to people—us, like, we're the ministering angels. So.

I think there’s kind of a flywheel effect to this challenge.

The more and more I've been reaching out to people and the more and more I've tried to like make new friends in the neighborhood and get to know people at church and reconnect with friends from my past through social media and stuff,

the more and more of those conversations are kind of like continuing, you know what I mean?

In our marriage, I’m the Chatty Cathy.

I'm the one that is very social, very outgoing, very extroverted.

I think this has been a really good challenge for him because he's realized that, A, he does have a lot of friends that as he reaches out to them, they want to connect with him.

And B, I think that he's realized that talking to people can be really beneficial, not just for the people he talks to, but for himself as well.

So I've been proud of him.

And as I look back on the 30 days, I realize a couple of things. One, it really did actually become a habit. It was a habit-forming process. And so now, even today, like, I didn't even think about it. I ended up talking to an old friend today. I think if I was going to boil down the 30 days into that, it's just that I love the Lord and I want to do everything that I can to show Him that love and be willing to like,

give my all and help my neighbor and love others. And

I don't know, it just makes me happy. And that’s that’s about all that

I get from it is just happiness. There’s no there’s no other honor or glory or—like the honor and the glory be to God, you know what I mean? And so anyways, I think that’s, that’s how I would wrap up my 30-day challenge. And it's been a ride and I'm going to continue to like keep, keep the habit that I've built and

just keep trying to be more Christlike every day.

Thanks everyone for tuning in.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for watching my 30-day challenge. I loved the opportunity to develop a lifelong habit of seeking out ways to minister to people,

and I really hope it inspires you to do something similar.

Let me know in the comments.

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