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Service: what does it mean to serve at a cost?

For littler ones: When helping is really hard, what makes someone keep helping anyway?

Service — What does it mean to serve at a cost?

This week we're wondering about service — about giving something for others, and what it can cost the one who gives. What does it mean to serve at a cost: to keep helping when it isn't free, when it takes something from you too? It's a good thing to turn over in the car or at the table, and a fitting one with Veterans Day near — a quiet question to sit with, not a parade.

This week's stories

American

The Tuskegee Airmen

Black pilots who flew for their country in the war, even while, back home, the law kept Black Americans separated from white Americans.

American

Martha Washington and the Eight Long Winters

A woman who left a warm home, winter after winter, for a freezing camp where the army was — because that was where she was needed.

American

Casey Jones

A railroad man who stayed at his post and worked the brakes when he could have jumped clear, and so the others on the train lived.

Talk about it

  • Each of these three gave up something to help. What did each one give up?
  • Is it still service if no one ever sees it or thanks you for it?
  • Has someone ever helped you when it was hard for them to do it? Have you ever kept helping when you wanted to stop?

A new question every week.

Listen together in the app — short audio stories for kids 4–10, at bedtime, on the drive, in the drop-off line.

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