Be the change!!

God has been working on me lately.  I have been so consumed in my own life, I have forgotten how freeing (is that a word?!?) it is to show love to others.  Maybe giving is my love language.  (I wouldn’t know because I didn’t finish the book!!!!)  Looking back over my life, I have recently realized that when I give back, or do things for others, I am not as focused on myself and feel so much better.  I realize that its sort of backwards, and as I am writing this thinking that it’s weird to say when I give to someone I feel better but it’s true.  And let me just say that I’m not giving so I can feel better about myself, I’m truly giving out of the kindness of my heart and the byproduct is that I feel better!  Man, this didn’t sound this complicated when I was thinking of writing about this!!  : )

For the last 3 years, a friend and I have done Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs) for the month of December.  Again, God gave me a message (more than once), of people giving back by showing random acts of kindness.  When I read it, I was definitely interested because it sounded fun and it appealed to my introvert-self because they are random!!!  Win-win!  So that year, we decided to do 30 random acts in December.  I started a list of things that seemed do-able and thanks to Pinterest, came up with some more that sounded fun.  (I’ve kept every list I have done, just as a reminder for myself because I don’t want to reinvent the wheel every year!)  And what’s neat is that when you start making your list, you realize there are things you already do that can be considered RAKs!  That first year I think I did 23 of the 30, which could be seen as I didn’t make the goal but I had to remember that’s 23 things I wouldn’t have done otherwise!!  The next year I only did 17, but I had a 9 month old so that made it a little harder! : )  Let’s not even talk about December 2014!  I did a few that year but I’m just glad I was able to function because of the twins!  Haha!!  All this to say that I am excited to start anew with something that I’ve already done, even though I’ve fell off the wagon a little bit.  So, for any of your reading this (whenever you may read it), why don’t you start a Random Acts of Kindness month?  You can brighten someone’s day and give people some hope that there are still good people in the world today!  Be the change!!!!

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”  Hebrews 13:16

RAK Ideas

1.     Bake cookies for your neighbors

2.     Donate clothes to the needy

3.     Buy gifts for underprivileged families (Salvation Army, local shelters)

4.     Pay for someone behind you in the drive thru

5.     Leave an extra tip for a waiter with a note

6.     Send a card/letter to someone who may need it (Wounded Vets, elderly)

7.     Give money to a charity (St Judes, Relay for Life, etc.)

8.     Small gift/flowers for a nursing home resident

9.     Compassion or Samaritan’s purse has one time donation/catalog

10. Donate groceries/money at a local grocery store

Well, hello there!

Well hello!  It has been such a long time since I have wrote here, I really don’t even know where to start!  Talk about a blogging hiatus!  So much has happened since my last post and I have recently began to think that I really need to document again all the ways God has blessed me.  Especially since I have such a hard time remembering things now!!  : ) 

The first and biggest blessing since the last time I wrote is my son, Jude!  Shortly after I got married, I became pregnant and had a pretty uneventful pregnancy…thank the Lord!!  Well, let me back up a little bit…the only real problem that I had was that around month 5 or 6, I was checked for gestational diabetes and it came back positive.  Well, in the OBGYN world, that’s not a big deal, but in my world it was a HUGE deal!  Haha!  I had to watch what I ate so my sugar count wouldn’t get high, which is hard to do when all you like are carbs!!  Oh, and I think my Dr said that 95% of all patients end up having to take shots for it AND that they gain more weight, like that did anything to make me feel better!!  But God watched over me and gave me the will power to make it through the rest of my pregnancy without shots and with normal weight gain!!  Definitely a blessing!

Fast forward to bringing that little bundle of joy home, with the hormonal changes and fears of being a first time mom, things definitely weren’t like a Pampers commercial.  Again, God watched over me and brought specific ladies into my life that gave great advice, encouragement and helped me get over the hump!  Jude has opened my eyes to what true love is and I can’t imagine how much more that God loves us! 

Again, fast forward, we were planning to have a second bundle of joy and in January 2014, I found out I was pregnant!!  We were both excited, I was a little nervous because we just got our family into a great routine (hahaha…routines!) and wondering how I would share my time with another baby.  Well, again, God always knows more than we do.  When we went for our gender ultrasound at 18 weeks, we found out we were having TWINS!!  A boy and a girl! (I'll have to write more about this because it is a WHOLE other story in itself!) After the initial shock wore off, I realized just what God has given us.  He’s given us the awesome chance of raising three little angels to know him and love him and even though it’s a huge responsibility, it’s also the biggest blessing that he could give us!  So, obviously he trusts us more than we would ever trust ourselves!  J  Looking back it’s so funny to think that I had this second pregnancy all figured out and knowing God was chuckling the whole time saying, “You have absolutely no idea!”  It’s going to be an interesting few years, but I know God is in control and he has my best interest at heart!

Just thinking of all the blessings God has given me within the last two/three years proves to me how God really cares for us!  There were some times when I couldn’t see where God was taking me, but all I could do was hold on to the hope that God cared for me.  It’s definitely hard to do during the valleys of your life (sometimes it’s all you can do), but stay strong, He is a God of strength and love.  You just have to have the faith that He has our best interest at heart.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope and certain of what we do not see.  Heb 11:1 (NIV)