Before we started our acts of kindness/service this year I decided I would not blog about them. I was worried it came off badly. Recently I was reading a blog and she stated she was reticent to share her acts of service as she felt, "it could easily be interpreted to appear as the Pharisees gloating to the public as they dropped their alms into the treasury." But after receiving kind words from two different people telling me that they enjoy reading about our acts, I have decided to list them. Just for documentation sake, and maybe to provide some easy ideas for others.
In no particular order.
1. Have the missionaries over for dinner. The two missionaries we have right now and probably my most favorite missionaries we have ever had in the ward. At the ward Christmas party this year, they did not eat until everyone else had, and then as soon as they were done I found them cleaning up. They are inspiring young men.
2. Write a letter (by email) to the missionary (Brad Blackham) serving from our ward. We each wrote him a paragraph or two, and were so happy to hear back from him the next day.
3. Write thank you letters. Megan chose to write to a friend, Jackson chose to write to his basketball coach, Sadie chose to write to her Kindergarten teacher, and Eric and I wrote to someone in the ward.
4. After eating out, Eric and I told the manager how much we liked our server and what a good job she had done.
5. Eric and Megan had the opportunity to put up Christmas lights for individuals that needed help doing it.
6. Every Tuesday I help with the fundraiser Cookies for Computers at the kids school. And every Tuesday in December was no different. The kids don't always help, but they made sure they did during December.
7. We put money in Salvation Army buckets whenever we saw one.
8. One day Megan made lunch for Jackson so I didn't have to do it.
9. Sadie was extra quiet one afternoon. When I went to find out what she was doing, I found her in the living room folding 2 loads of laundry. She told me she was doing an act of service for me.
Perfectly imperfect.
10. When we were writing out our ideas for service opportunities Jackson really wanted to donate money to Project Hope to help the people living in the Philippines. Each of the kids chose how much of their own money they wanted to donate and we sent it in.
11. While at the ward Christmas party we stayed and helped clean up and also helped serve the food, even though we hadn't been assigned either task.
12. We made the bread for Sacrament meeting one Sunday in December.
13. We wrote a note to our letter carrier telling them how much we appreciated their hard work, and gave them some Oreo's.
14. We went Ding-Dong Ditching. Always a thrill and favorite with the kids. And thank goodness Hostess has started making Ding-Dongs again!
15. We arrived at church 15 minutes early one week so we could hold the doors open for people.
16. The last week of school I helped with two school parties, and the reindeer run.
(Sade orchestrated this picture and made sure she had her friend photobomb me).
17. We returned carts to stalls one night at Wal-Mart.
18. We also let someone go ahead of us in line. At Wal-Mart. On a Saturday night. I think this should count for at least 2 acts. :)
19. We delivered treats to our neighbors, and wrote them notes thanking them for being such good neighbors.
20. We donated 4 bags of gently used clothes and shoes to Child Haven.
21. While working Eric noticed a lady trying to unsuccessfully tie her side mirror onto her car with some string. He went over and helped her secure it with some duct tape he had in his truck.
22. We took doughnuts to two different people we appreciate at the kids school. I was describing to the kids who I wanted to take them to (I didn't know their names), and found out that the two people I was describing were both janitors! What are the chances? They are both just so nice and helpful.
23. We cut out paper snowflakes, wrote notes of appreciation about a family in our ward, and then taped them to their door.
24. We wrote "Merry Christmas" on some Christmassy sticky notes, and put them on cars in our neighborhood.
These were all so easy and mostly free or inexpensive. It is such a good lesson to us (as in my family) that you don't need to be rich, and your acts don't have to be extravagant. Although I do greatly admire those who do use their wealth for good.
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