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