Devine Acts of Kindness

It's Christmas-time! It truly is my family's favorite time of year!! We begin decorating after Halloween, so that we can enjoy the lights & colors of the season for as long as possible! My husband and I love buying gifts for our children that we know they will love & have wanted. However, we don't do an extravagant Christmas and we certainly don't focus on gifts.

Our focus on Christmas is all about Jesus! Jesus gave the ultimate gift when He left a face-to-face communion with the Father to be born a lowly baby here on this earth. Not because He wanted to or chose to, but out of obedience to God and out of ultimate, sacrificing love for us! I am *so* thankful for His ultimate gift for us.

So, at Christmas we like our Children to focus on acts of kindness! We want to bless others by using our gifts/talents!!

Many people do this in the month of December and it can get expensive. Buying & donating gifts to shelters, safe homes, and other places that minister to people around the world. There is a real need for these places and donating gifts/money is definitely helpful! However, what do you do when you don't have the extra money to donate hundreds of dollars? You get creative with your blessings!

We packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child to give gifts to other children around the world. This one can be as pricey as you want. Our church partners together and our small congregation packed almost 100 boxes together! This was truly a blessing!!

Our children are old enough that they love to make cards! So we sent cards to hospitalized children. Children who are hospitalized for extended stays! You can do this too!!

Just mail your card(s) to:

Cards for Hospitalized Kids

7290 W Devon Ave

Chicago, IL 60631

The great thing about this Act of Kindness is that they love receiving cards year around, so this is something we can do atleast once a month!

We rung the bell at Big Lots for the Salvation Army! It's been a warm December, but it wasn't this day. It was 27 degrees outside and the wind was blowing! Our children were such troopers and we were so proud of their willing hearts!

We wrote a Thank You note for our mailman and bought some cookies at the store for just a couple of dollars. We put it in our mailbox with a water bottle and put the flag up for him to get one evening!  We also intend to do this for our garbage men! Let's face it... delivering mail & picking up garbage are pretty thankless jobs... so we were extra excited to bless these professions!

**We were going to go even cheaper and do homemade cookies, but my concern was that with all the cruelties in this world people have to be so careful. Especially government funded employees. I was concerned that if we made them homemade cookies they may have been warned not to eat them. I don't know?! But I wanted to be safer than sorry, so we got the store-bought kind.** 

We had a gift card that we didn't use all of, so we handed the remaining balance of the card over to the person behind us and she was *thrilled*!

We make sure to be kind to everyone we meet and say thank you for all their hard work. Retail & service employees have the hardest jobs dealing with the public, and I can tell you from personal experience that a kind customer makes for a better day.

We have other things in mind for this Christmas season... goodies to make and hand out to Sunday School teachers & our neighbors. Popcorn to be taped onto a Redbox machine, and more blessings to be shared. 

I just want to share a few of our experiences to help others' understand that an Act of Kindness doesn't *have* to be every day and it doesn't have to cost $30/day. It can be simple and heartfelt... and it can mean just as much to the receiver. 

How will you choose to be a blessing today?

From our family to yours... Merry Christmas!!