I have been so moved by the generous anonymous giving Erika at Inspired Mama Musings wrote about during the holidays. She left handmade gifts with notes in public places like the library, a school, and health and welfare office. Such a positive act to continue throughout the year!
I’ve paid for the coffee of the person in the car behind me at the Starbuck’s drive thru and must admit- it probably felt more exciting and feel-good to me than it did to them! But it’s not a regular action of mine to do random acts of kindness. I want to do more, starting now.
Have you ever been the recipient of a random act of kindness? What kinds of things have you done to pay it forward?
Photo by Keli Hoskins
I recently read on a friend’s blog about how every morning she watches her elderly neighbor carry everyone in their cul-de-sac’s newpaper up to their front door for them. Such a sweet gesture amongst neighbors…I don’t do enough random acts of kindness, they can be so simple and can really bless the recipient — I need to do more, thanks for the reminder!
I really want to do more random acts of kindness too. I think I do pretty well at them when I notice something I can do, but I want to be more intentional about it. To think of things in advance and then carry them out.
I have been the recipient of someone paying for my food in a drive thru lane. And I have to say, it was an amazing feeling to have someone do that for me. It was a very simple and easy gesture, but it really touched my heart for some reason.
I’m a photographer and was recently working with a newly divorced mother of three on her son’s senior pictures. She was having a really hard time coming up with the money for his photos. So I decided at Christmas time to send her a Christmas card with a cd of all of his images on them. Just because. Just because I knew how great it felt for me when that person paid for my lunch. a very insignificant thing really. But this mom was not going to be able to purchase many senior pictures. That’s more of a big deal in my opinion. Senior pictures are something you will have for a lifetime. I knew that the little bit of money she scrapped together to buy a few prints was going to HURT her a whole lot worse than it was going to help me. I wanted to do something to make her life just a little easier. Give her one less thing to worry about during this difficult time.
I too hope to try to start doing more random acts of kindness on a more regular basis.
Thanks for the reminder.
Hm.. can’t say I’ve been a recipient, but this does make me want to be a provider of these random acts of kindness. i do know I’ve been a recipient of specific and focused acts of kindness – 2010 was a hard year for me, and I have been so blessed by people who went out of their way to help me when I had a death in the family, sickness, surgery, all of the above.
My sweet 5 year-old son holds the door open for his sisters, and he has received the “gentleman” status from on-lookers (and his mom!). I’d also say that was not random, though, but common courtesy.
Such a good reminder. I’ve tried to start a ‘send a random card a week’ to friends routine, but I should reach out to strangers too. With my luck, though, if I tried to pay for someone at Starbucks they’d probably have a $20 order.
Way back when…my sister and I used to pay the toll for the person behind us. It was wonderful to see the looks on their faces and then watch as they try to catch up and see if they knew us!