I started thinking about ways I could make someone’s day a little brighter. For me, it all started with my family. What could I do to show kindness and to help them have a better day?

My first thought was directed to my husband. We all know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach so I planned to make one of his favorite dinners. I could tell he enjoyed that after a long day at work.

For my kids it’s all about the cookies. When my daughter got home from school, she and my 2 year old had a fresh homemade batch of cookies waiting with a glass of milk. Cookies also seem to draw the neighborhood kids, which is a lot of fun, too.

For as much as I enjoy providing random acts of kindness for my family, I was thinking about my neighbors, friends and total strangers. What were some things I could do to show my kindness to others? Here is a list of ideas I came up with:

* Smile and say “hello” as you pass someone on the street.
* Thank the people who provide endless hours of service without a lot of recognition, like grocery clerks, librarians, school administrators and PTA board members.
* Offer to let someone with fewer items check out in front of you.
* Call a friend or neighbor out of the blue and offer to baby-sit.
* Compliment a stranger on something positive about them.

I would like to encourage all of you to “look up” and see what you can do to make someone’s day a little brighter …

The family was facing a grim Christmas last year, so the father took the children to the local mall and gave each child $20 with which to purchase four gifts at no more than $5 each.

When the family reunited, they were all laughing and talking — all except this 8-year-old girl, who appeared very serious and was carrying a small, flat bag that contained only four, 50-cent candy bars.

Apparently while looking for gifts, she had come across one of the Salvation Army’s “Giving Trees,” which carry cards describing real local children for whom the agency is seeking “angels” to buy their presents. One card featured a little girl who asked for a doll and a hairbrush. The young shopper made the purchases and returned them with the card to the Salvation Army booth in the mall. Then she bought candy with the money she had left.

“This girl felt she was so richly blessed that she gave to another girl who was less fortunate,” Brink said.

That is the kind of holiday spirit that prompts generous friends and area residents to make gifts to the Pocono Record’s annual Toys for Joy campaign. We collect the donations between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, and then turn over the proceeds to the Salvation Army and the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Network, which buy and distribute the gifts to needy children all around Monroe County.

You, too, can brighten a child’s holiday. Send your check to: Toys for Joy, Pocono Record, 511 Lenox St., Stroudsburg, PA 18360.

If you enjoy Christian humor this website is worth checking out www.reverendfun.com

Love is an action
by Rick Warren

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.

1 John 3:18 (NLT)

Love is something you do. You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.

Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It’s also more than sentimentality, like so many of today’s songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No, not at all. Because love is an action; love is a behavior.

Here is some scripture Galatians 5:22-23. The NIV Bible lists the fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

1. Genesis 19:19
Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.
2. Genesis 21:23
Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you.”
3. Genesis 24:12
Then he prayed, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
4. Genesis 24:14
May it be that when I say to a girl, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’-let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”
5. Genesis 24:27
saying, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”
6. Genesis 24:49
Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”
7. Genesis 32:10
I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.
8. Genesis 39:21
the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
9. Genesis 40:14
But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.
10. Genesis 47:29
When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,
11. Joshua 2:12
Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign
12. Judges 8:35
They also failed to show kindness to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for them.
13. Judges 21:22
When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you did not give your daughters to them.’ ”
14. Ruth 1:8
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
15. Ruth 2:20
“The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
16. Ruth 3:10
“The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
17. 1 Samuel 15:6
Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
18. 1 Samuel 20:8
As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”
19. 1 Samuel 20:14
But show me unfailing kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed,
20. 1 Samuel 20:15
and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
21. 2 Samuel 2:5
he sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead to say to them, “The LORD bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him.
22. 2 Samuel 2:6
May the LORD now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this.
23. 2 Samuel 9:1
[ David and Mephibosheth ] David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
24. 2 Samuel 9:3
The king asked, “Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?” Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet.”
25. 2 Samuel 9:7
“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”

The above list only a few of the many kindness references from the bible. Some text courtesy of BibleGateway.com

If you have been following Matt and his antics you know he travels the globe and video records his unique “dance” style to share with the world. Do something fun and pass on some Sun!

[rating:4]

It is great to see Hollywood get behind the Pay it Forward campaign. The Kindness in Motion Team is always looking for ways to encourage others to do just that, Pay it Forward. Consider treating a friend to this Movie, you never know what seed it will plant or the good it will do.

[rating:4]

To the Kindness in Motion Team this image literally means we hold the Sun in our hands and if we choose we can pass on some Sun to another person each and everyday. Make today the day you pass on some Sun to an anonymous recipient.

Pay for someone’s coffee, toll fee or lunch in a fast food drive thru. Deliver some baking or cut someone’s lawn. Remember, YOUR ripple can start a WAVE ~

Start by downloading some smile cards and performing an anonymous act of kindness, after completing your kind act leave the card which will hopefully encourage the recipient to do same.

Pass on some SUN!!!!

Download Free Kindness Cards

· If we’re judgmental, then others will judge us.

· If we’re critical all the time, then others will criticize us.

· If we gossip about others, then others will gossip about us.

· If we’re jealous, then others will be jealous of us.

Whatever we give out, we’re going to get back. As the old saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.”

On the other hand, we can sow the positive. If we sow encouragement, affirmation, and kindness, others will give back encouragement, affirmation, and kindness. If we sow love, people are going to sow love back to us. God wired the universe that way.

And, we always get back more than we give. Always! This great excerpt was from Rick Warren at Purpose Driven Life.

Download your free kindness smile cards today! Your ripple can start a WAVE ~