30 Days of Serving and Sharing: Goodness & Kindness

Expressing thirty days of gratitude is wonderful. However, out of that gratitude let’s also focus on 30 days of serving and sharing. Some folks concentrate on this in November, but we can put this project into practice anytime during the year. In this post, our focus is on doling out goodness and kindness.

Of course, we try to practice this within own families on a daily basis. But in this post, you’ll receive suggestions of things you can do together for people outside of your own family. If your life is a little crazy like mine, there will be days when you can barely muster up enough energy just to serve your own family. That’s okay. The point is to put more action with our words. If that’s thirty extra activities this month, or only three activities, God will use it.

“But do not forget to do good and to share,

for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

Hebrews 13:16 (NKJV)

I’ve divided this project of serving and sharing into four blog posts. I know the fruit of the Spirit is instilled only by God. I’m simply using the names below to help group my categories. My “Goodness” category involves tasty goodness as well!

In the end, we will have over fifty activity ideas from which you and your family can choose to do.

30 Days of Sharing & Serving Series:

Goodness & Kindness    (Days 1 – 7)

Peace & Hope                (Days 8 – 15)

Patience & Self-Control (Days 16 – 22)

Joy & Faithfulness          (Days 23 -30)

Many of the following suggestions are easy. Others may call for sacrificial giving. Some require courage. Adapt the ideas to suit your family and use them as a springboard for more ideas. Please share those new ideas with us. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Goodness & Kindness

• Show hospitality to a new family in the neighborhood or to the new folks visiting your church. Invite them over for a meal or for coffee. Or bake a pie and deliver it to them. Years ago, my family did this for a new couple in our neighborhood. Because our visit was unannounced, we insisted we weren’t coming inside their home. What frazzled mom likes unexpected visits? We introduced ourselves, gave them a pie, and said we just wanted to welcome them to the neighborhood. We also invited them to visit our church. Years later, they shared that our welcome prompted them to visit and later join our church. It was also the beginning of a wonderful friendship. You never know how one simple act may affect someone.

• Plan a celebration party for someone who has recently completed something difficult–a math test, medical treatment, extra job training, a marathon!

• Get your kids to help you whip up a batch of homemade cookie dough. Roll it into a log shape, wrap it in wax paper, and freeze. Take the frozen, cookie dough to a busy, young mother so she can easily bake cookies for her little ones one day.

• Prepare a main dish that freezes well. Give it to an expectant mom or a new mom. College kids with access to cooking facilities also appreciate this!

• Fill a coffee mug with a bag of gourmet hot chocolate or a gift card to a local coffee shop or bakery. Then, secretly put the items on the desk of the person who irritates you the most at work.

• Choose to have a good attitude this week with the people in an area where you tend to struggle. This may be when you deal with other drivers, a sales associate, a classmate, a client, or a coworker. Show grace. Forgive. Smile more. Give positive encouragement. Take the first step in creating a better relationship.

More ideas

• Volunteer to read stories to children at a children’s home or a foster home. Or volunteer to read to someone with impaired vision. For book ideas, check here.

• Make homemade cards for the mentally ill who live in a group home.

• Prepare goodie bags of acceptable items for the distressed children encountered by your local police or the department of social services.

• Find out what items are needed at a local prison. Then, organize a collection drive for those items.

• Go through your closets. Check the attic, the basement, and the storage unit. What things have you not used in the past year? Gather items to donate to those in need and deliver them to a local shelter or thrift store.

• Volunteer to change the oil or wash the car of a widow or widower you know.

• Ask your kids to brainstorm for ways to bless someone who is often unkind or grumpy. You might send them balloons. Leave a colorful, potted plant on their doorstep. Mail them some fun stickers or a gift certificate to a fast-food restaurant.

• Fill a gift bag with windshield defrosting spray, a scarf, and some gloves. Secretly place it on the windshield of someone’s car.

“We may think God wants actions of a certain kind,

but God wants people of a certain kind.”

-C.S. Lewis

Your Thoughts?

I hope some of these suggestions have sparked your family into motion! The next post in this series contains ideas for serving others in ways that offer peace and hope.

Do you have more suggestions for how we can share goodness and kindness? Some ideas in this series may overlap because they are all rooted in love.

Other posts in the “30 Days of Serving & Sharing” series:

Part 1: Goodness and Kindness

Part 2: Peace and Hope

Part 3: Patience & Self-Control

Part 4: Faithfulness & Joy

Great News! In my last giveaway, P. Diane Buie’s name was drawn as the winner of the free, virtual visit with author, Laura Sassi. Yay!

But since then, Laura contacted me and said she wants to give a free, fifteen-minute virtual visit to everyone who participated in the giveaway contest. Woo hoo!

What a superb way to kick off our week of sharing kindness and serving others. Thank you, Laura!

Motivated by the power of story, history, and His Story, Sally Matheny’s passion is telling the next generation wondrous things.

Her nonfiction writing appears in worldwide, national, and regional publications including Appleseeds, Clubhouse Jr., Homeschooling Today, and The Old Schoolhouse.

She and her husband live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and are blessed with three children, two sons-in-law, and armfuls of grandbabies. Connect with Sally on several social media sites, but her favorite hangouts are at SallyMatheny.com and Pinterest.