It’s Random Acts of Kindness week this week! February 11 – 17 to be exact 🙂 I know I am always so grateful when someone does something nice for me: holds the door when I’m struggling with my double stroller, has a kind word and a sticker for my kids at the dr. office, even something as simple sharing a sympathetic smile when I’m having a tough day can really cheer me up. So I am going to participate by purposefully trying to be kind to someone every day this week. And NOT just my kids 😉I’d love to hear ideas and if you’ve done something kind for someone, please leave a comment and share your story… I can use all the inspiration I can get!
LOVE IT! I’m IN!!
This morning I bought a few things to send to a fellow blogger who is forwarding all donations to the Starfish Foster Home in China…
Thanks to your post, I too will “purposefully” do some random acts this week! Wouldn;t it be great if EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE did this?? 😉
One of my favorites is to pay for the person behind me in a drive thru lane. I have also been known to put money in an envelope before and mail without any return address to someone I know could use a little extra.
speaking of starfish, it’s not a direct donation, but I emailed Amanda all the contact information to get Robeez shoe donations…I know how much they needed shoes, so I just made the ‘connection’ for them.
oh…does it count that I rallied all our friends, and spread the word about Yifeng and raised $2000 in 2 days for storm relief?
DANG! You guys are already rockin’ it out and it’s only Monday!! I’m gonna need to switch to caffeinated to keep up with you girls!!
This made my day…. An older gentleman was ahead of me at the post office and was trying to insert money into a machine to buy stamps. I came forward and let him know that you could only use a credit card (of which he did not have, and only had one letter to mail). I bought a book of stamps and handed him one. He insisted that he would pay me, but I let him know that it was no big deal and went on about my business. He left, but then walked back in to the post office. With tears in his eyes, he said, “your good deed helped me to do a good deed. My sister is down and out and has no money. I was trying to mail her some money to help out. Just wanted you to know.”
Now, giving the man a stamp was a simple 41 cent gesture, but reminded me of how something so small can mean so much to someone else. It really made my day.
Mary
Mary,
That is the sweetest story I’ve heard in a while… what a difference your kind gesture made to him AND to his sister 🙂
Way to go!
I’d rather tell you what someone else has done for me. Two men live down the street from us (an older man and his son)and when we came home with Matthew, they baked us bread and gave us a bag for toys. At CHristmas they remembered Matthew with a Baby’s First blanket. To me this was very special because there isn’t a woman in the house organizing this gift-giving! These two men have been so kind.
I bought a puppy for my mil who had longed one for a long time just didnt have the cash to buy one and all the bits you need to do with it!
So I went and got her one with everything you need plus food for a month!
My favorite thing to do is pay for the person behind me when I drive thru Starbucks…I always hope they continue it and pay for the person behind them.
I will make sure to do some random acts of kindness this week.
Oh, I love this kind of stuff. I’ll have to think about it….maybe I’ll bake some valentine’s cookies for the ladies at my meeting tomorrow night….
I had no idea it was Be Kind to Someone this Week! I was in a very long line today @ the post office mailing Valentines. When I finally made it to the front, the lady behind the counter said, “I would give anything for a mountain dew.” Well, I dashed over to CVS and bought she and the other man working there one. You should have seen her face- her jaw dropped and couldn’t believe I had gotten it for them. It felt great to do something for someone that didn’t expect a kind deed.
Blessings,
Shay
When I go into WA-WA (it is like a Sheets down in the South!), I like to pay for a solider (in uniform) order that is behind me in line. I like to do it in a way that they don’t know who is doing it :O) So I discreetly tell the lady behind the counter to add X amount ( I look at what they have and try to make my best guess) and then I walk out quickly .. I have the lady tell them “it is a thank you for serving” .. for me the point is for no recongition..
Someone did this to my husband last year at 5 am on his way into work.. i have been doing back ever since.. it made a HUGE impact on us both…
When my uncle died, I paid my Aunts electric bill for the following month .. she still has no idea who paid it.. I just called up the company and told them to make it a donor and paid it.. I love doing things like that.
Last week I had to make cookies for a function. I made a double batch & then bagged up cookies in bundles of 6 & handed them out to our elderly neighbors, my daughter’s bus driver, our speech therapist……it was a welcome, no reason surprise.
I can’t wait to hear what you will do. I think you are an awe-inspiring mom & every morning as I get my daughter off to school, I marvel at how efficient you must be to do it X 4…….+ the ones still at home.
Regards,
Debby
mom to Lindsi & Jami
Oh I am going to steal this little icon and put it on my blog.. hope that’s okay… had not clue it is RAK week.. very cool. I love this kind of stuff…
we love to do the pay the drive thru, or toll, or parking ticket thing and pay for the person behind us. Sometimes we get a bunch of flowers and drive through Wendy’s or whatever and hand them to the person or hand them out in the gorcery store. Mow a neighbors yard, or in my case today, shovel their driveway. Offer to take someones cart back for them. Make and take someone dinner. Have the kids make cards and Stop by the local nursing home hand them out and spend some time with the people. Take dinner or cookies to your local fiehouse. IF you see someone working outside and it is hot, bring them a soda. In our case, we will probably run into some AEP workers trying to restore power, we could bring them some hot chocolate. Send a nice note to a friend telling them 10 things about them that make them special. Have your kids take one of their siblings chores and surprise them by doing it for them. Kids can put encouragement notes under their siblings pillows. Send your kids to my house and they can do my laundry, or clean my house.LOL.. Okay.. might have overstayed my welcome on this post…LOL. love this stuff.. can’t wait to see more ideas.
I was checking on my blog and noticed that you all had made 100% of your funding!!!!!! WOOHOO!!! I have been praying hard for you all and little Shepherd. I am so thrilled for you! I loved the post below with the video. How precious!
Angela
Actually, this past month, our church has been doing this all month and calling it Revolutionary Love. In addition to the act of kindness, the person receives a card that says Revolutionary Love on the front. On the inside it says, “What happened here? You just expereinced Revolutionary Love. Someone showed you the love of God- No strings attached. Jesus Christ was the greatest example of this that ever existed. He died on the cross to pay for sins that were not His own- they were yours. The person who gave you this card has expereience that Revolutionary Love and is passing it on to you.
To learn more, share your experience, or read those of others, go to http://www.mannachurch.org“
There are some heartwarming accounts on the website! It has been a wonderful outreach! Who says we need just a week each year or even a month each year to do this? I say, let’s show Revolutionary Love ALL year round!!
We have had fun buying lunches for cars behind us in the drivethrough, paying for someone else’s groceries and secretly leaving bags of toddler clothes for a family who literally had no boy clothing for their toddler! Who knows how God may work through these random acts?!
Thanks for reminding me to be PURPOSEFUL and PROACTIVE about this.
Blessings,
Lisa
I’ve been doing this last week so I’ll share mine over the last week:
when I saw a mom on her own unloading her cart of groceries by the car, I wait and offer to take her cart to the cart area for her – always goes down well (of course you have little ones so it might be harder for you to do this).
I know a single mom, I offered to baby-sit for free so she gets a break, to go out for a meal with friends or have time to herself.
I know someone who is struggling financially, but won’t accept $, I bought them a pack of groceries, some clothing for their kids, certificates to grocery store etc.
Let an older man go in front of me at the queue (line up) in the shop.
(what was funny was that I let him go in front and then a couple cut infront of me and formed a second line up, I kinda rolled my eyes and realized not everyone has the same values, but it was a tad ironic!)
Kate
I loved Holly’s post about Revolutionary Love. Praise God that He puts kindness in our hearts in the first place, provides opportunities for us to be kind, and gives us the resources, time, etc. to show His “revolutionary love” to the world. To Him be the glory!
oops…that last comment from “scott” was from me! didn’t know it was under his name!
tish
This was from an email from my amazing friend who was too shy to ‘toot’ her horn… but what she did was so touching and thoughtful, I had to share!!
I *heart* you Lisa C.!! (anonymous enough for ya?)
“I wanted to thank you for reminding me today about random acts of kindness……The kids had a snowday J L today so I took the girls to Walmart to stock up on our groceries. There was a nice lady in front of me in the line, which was long, and we chatted for a minute about the new curtains she was buying and then I got involved reading a magazine and I realized WOW it is really taking a long time and I looked up and she wasn’t there anymore and the cashier was taking her things off and putting them in a cart off to the side, so I asked, “What happened to the lady in front of me?” and the cashier said, “She didn’t have enough money for her groceries so she is gone to the money machine.” And I said, “oh, I can wait for her to come back, you don’t have to delete her sale…” and she said, “No, honey…usually when they say they are going to the machine, they don’t come back. She already had me take a lot of items off, and she still didn’t have enough to pay for it.” So I left my cart and went to look, and there was the lady looking all sad in front of the machine, and so I went up and said, “If you wouldn’t mind, I would love to pay for your groceries today.” And she looked so shocked. I told her you had challenged me to do a random act of kindness today and after all that Jesus had done for me, I would be so happy to be a part of Him blessing her…she was so happy and told me thank you so many times and told me about how God had been taking care of her and her children and that her kids were in the car and she couldn’t wait to go outside to tell them about what God had done. The cashier kept saying, “Honey…(she was an old lady) God is going to bless you and your children for what you did!” and I kept saying, “Believe me! He already has!”
yeah shawty!! you are at 102%! whoop whoop!!
Stefanie-
I am tagging you.. I am so very very sorry.. please still be my friend..LOL. head on over to my blog to participate.. again, so sorry. couldn’t break the chain,, 7 minutes of bad luck or something.
let’s start a petition to do away with the tag
btw- lovin the chip in total.. keep em coming peeps
🙂
Amie
I’m sorry Amie.. did you not READ the title of this very post? Be KIND to someone?!?
Oh, my 7 things would be utterly BORING… I’ll start thinking 😉
I still love you, though 🙂
okay.. I came back here to read these to get more ideas.. there are some good ones..
I REALLY love Lisa C.’s idea. Super cool!!! What I love most is your response, That Jesus has already blessed you… thank you for that. You blessed me with that. That is so true and I will be using that. See how your blessing just keeps on blessing.
Thanks for the smile!
🙂
Amie
thanks stefanie.. I have a hard time believing they would be boring…nothing about your life is boring..LOL… I am off to make my banners” DOWN WITH THE TAG”…
🙂
Amie
I love random acts of kindness! Our favorite RAOK is to pay for dinner for someone eating in the same restaurant as us -randomly of course. It all started when John and I went on our honeymoon and someone paid for our meal. 15 years later, we are still paying it forward .. in fact, when we went back to the same city and same restaurant for our 10 yr. anniversary, we asked the waiter to find a newlywed couple and we paid for their dinner! It is so much fun and our kids LOVE to do it!
Thanks for the reminder!
Margie