Our Acts of Kindness – Week 1 Follow-up

We’ve enjoyed an incredible 1st week of intentionally planning acts of kindness. It’s been important for me to keep in mind that extending kindness doesn’t have to be something big or something that requires a lot of time or money. Sometimes the best things are simply those little out of the ordinary things that lets someone know that you care about them, and even more important, that God can use to show how much He cares about them!

It’s been interesting to see the affect that these intentional acts have had on us as well. In the beginning, once my daughter completed her little task, she completely checked kindness off in her mind. She said, “I did my kindness, so I don’t have to be kind anymore today, do I mom?” Her innocent question led to a wonderful discussion about how kindness isn’t something you do, it’s who you are. And how our hope is that by the time we have been kind “on purpose” everyday this month, that we will just naturally grasp the opportunity to show kindness more easily, to think of others more often, and to share God’s love more freely.

I’m happy to report that by the end of the week, my girlies were excited about all the opportunities they’d taken to show kindness. Not only in what we had planned, but in spontaneously helping a classmate pick up spilt crayons, showing love and sharing beloved dolls and stuffed animals with an upset baby brother, and choosing to clean up one of the centers at school rather than playing in it that day.

We’ve been inspired by so many of the intentional acts that have been shared through the 30 Days of Kindness links.

Here are the intentional ways we chose to show kindness this week:

Day 1: Picking up trash from a local park and walking trail.

Day 2:Doing a household chore for another – i.e. make someone’s bed, take initiative in cleaning up after a meal, help put away another person’s things. One of my daughters even peeled an orange for me…no one ever prepares me a snack!  (This was inspired by Jennifer at The Purposeful Mom. I loved how she wanted to encourage her kids to show kindness to each other at home as well!)

Day 3: The kids wrote their own handwritten notes of appreciation to their teachers.

Day 4: Shopped for Operation Christmas Child and brought several shopping carts in from the parking lot while we were at it.

Day 5: Taped a couple of quarters on the horse ride that’s at the front of the grocery store.

Day 6: Visisted the laundromat to drop off a sample package of laundry detergent along with a couple dollars in quarters.

Day 7: Left a promo code for a free movie rental on a movie vending machine.

We have lots of fun ideas yet to carry out, but I’d love some inspiration from you as well. What are your favorite ways to reach out in kindness to others?

Related posts:

1. Day 17: Be the Person That You Want Your Child to Be – Kindness
2. 30 Days of Intentional Kindness