Small Acts of Kindness

This Christmas season I'm jumping on the holiday spirit bandwagon and trying to implement small acts of kindness into my daily or weekly routine. I've always thought these gestures were sweet but something felt amiss about needing a certain time of the year in order to do something nice for someone else. I can be a negative Nancy. It occurs to me now that regardless of needing a special time of the year or whether it's an anonymous or public act the end result is that something nice is done for someone else and that is pretty great, I guess.

I have a lot of friends who do this each year. One does it in remembrance of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. She leaves a card with the deceased individuals name and age with whatever treat she delivers. Another friend I have does her small acts of kindness in honor of an infant relative that lost his life. I also have a vivid memory of  being young and my Mom defiantly skipping down Main St in Columbia feeding other people's parking meters to be kind even though it's technically illegal.

My seminary class is going to be working together on a small-ish act of kindness in the next week and I was so impressed with their ideas. Everyone submitted 2 ideas and I picked 4 that I thought were doable then they voted on which one we would complete. Just to give you an idea some of the awesome things that they suggested but ultimately weren't chosen were: Christmas carolling, making and delivering dinner to a less fortunate church member, care packages to deployed soldiers, and free yard work. The youth I'm around never cease to amaze me. When they're given the opportunity to serve others they always step up to the plate.

I recently watched a video online about a woman who could never figure out what to get her husband for Christmas so one year she placed a blank white envelope in the tree branches that disclosed a significant act of charity she had done on his behalf. Her husband loved it and it became a tradition. Years later when her husband died she still felt like honoring his memory with a charitable offering and put her white envelope in the tree branches, then Christmas morning came and there were a total of 4 white envelopes on the tree because each of her three grown children had also, unbeknownst to one another, felt like honoring that tradition. My cold heart does warm at the thought of instilling goodness and charity in our children's hearts and minds by servings other when they can see, and eventually involving then in the process.

This year my church has pushed out a world-wide initiative to #LightTheWorld. Each day in December leading up to Christmas you can watch a short video that shows a way to serve others and #LightTheWorld this holiday season. I highly recommend checking them out- they're perfect to watch as families and are easy for children to understand!

Do you have any traditions like this? Sound off in the comments, I'd love to hear your stories and get some good ideas!