Jean Nidetch, a 214-pound homemaker desperate to lose weight, went to the New York City Department of Health where she was given a diet devised by Dr. Norman Jolliffe. Two months later, discouraged about the 50 plus pounds still to go, she invited six overweight friends home to share the diet and talk about how to stay on it. This was in 1963.

Today, some 50 years later, one million members attend 250,000 Weight Watchers meetings in 24 countries every week. Why was Nidetch able to help people take control of their lives? To answer that, she tells a story. When she was a teenager, she used to cross a park where she saw mothers gossiping while the toddlers sat on their swings, with no one to push them.

“I’d give them a push,” says Nidetch.

“And you know what happens when you push a kid on a swing? Pretty soon he’s pumping, doing it himself. That’s what my role in life is—I’m there to give others a push.”²

And isn’t that what Christianity and serving God is all about? We’re here to give others “a push” to help them get up when they have fallen down and to get on their own two feet. And who knows what might be the eventual effect?

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a ‘good pusher’ to help those who need a helping hand when they are down or in need. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Galatians 6:2 (NLT).

2. The online source is no longer available but you can see Jean Nidetch’s story online at: http://tinyurl.com/ygpzn6z.