Acts of Kindness Family Scavenger Hunt

I recently spoke to a precious mom's group at my church about being 

intentional in doing acts of kindness.  

I LOVE speaking to folks about easy, practical, simple, 

inexpensive ways to love others and it was a sweet time sharing 

how committing to doing RAOK had been a blessing in my life 

& what the Bible has to say about blessing others.  

A few of my favorite verses about kindness are: 

The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
those who help others are helped.
Proverbs 11:25

And let us consider how we may spur one another
on toward love and good deeds.
Hebrews 10:24

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to
your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2: 3-4

I wanted to leave them with a little something to encourage them 

to do RAOK's with their children so I created an 

Acts of Kindness Family Scavenger Hunt.

The idea is simple- gather another family or two and set aside a few hours. 

Each family get a copy of the scavenger hunt list and a few hours to 

complete as many tasks as possible. 

The rules are simple: 

1. Be genuine in each one of the service tasks. Remember, this is a race, BUT the goal is to actually make someone’s day, not just be the first family to finish.

2. Put as much effort into each task as possible.

3. Be safe! Stick together and be smart about your service.

4. Take pictures along the way.

5. You have ______Hours to finish.

6. Have fun and enjoy serving those around you!

I even included little notes to print out and leave with your acts of kindness.

You can print out a copy HERE. 

{Last year when I spoke to this group I created 

some acts of kindness activities for them to use with their children for

 both November and December. 

I shared the November idea HERE and the December idea HERE.} 

 

Baby Jesus Kindness Christmas Tradition

I am a girl who so LOVES traditions!  

And in our family we have many- especially at Christmas time. 

One of my absolute favorite traditions that we did for many 
years while Madison was growing up involved our nativity scene. 

As we decorated for Christmas I put out the entire nativity scene-

 except for baby Jesus. 

We left His manger empty- until Christmas morning. 

Until that time we had WORK to create a soft bed for him. 

How did we make a soft bed for him? 

Each day we tried to do as many kind deeds for others- 

above and beyond the normal. 

For each of those kind deeds we did, 

we got to place one piece of straw in the manger for baby Jesus.  
It was such a great reminder to all of us (Tony & I included)
to stop and truly think of others during the busy holiday season. 

Each night at dinner we would share our kind acts and get straw 
to add to the manger for baby Jesus. Our goal was to have a super soft, cozy bed
 for him by Christmas morning- built by our kindness to others. 

December Random Acts of Kindness Calendar

A few weeks ago I spoke to a super sweet group of

young mamas at my church about RAOK (random acts of kindness). 

It was a sweet time sharing how committing to doing RAOK had 

been a blessing in my life and what the Bible has to say about blessing others. 

 One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 11:25 which says: 

The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.

I wanted to leave them with a little something to encourage them to do RAOK's 

with their children so I created something for both November and December. 

I shared the November idea HERE 

and thought I'd share the December idea today!

It's a simple calendar with an easy idea for blessing others listed for each day. 

In this crazy hectic season it's nice

to have a simple idea at hand of how to bless someone else!

Just print it out HERE, add it to your bulletin board or fridge 

and get your kids involved in blessing others this December!

November RAOK Paper Chain

I spoke to a super sweet group of young mamas at my church yesterday

 about RAOK (random acts of kindness). 

It was a sweet time sharing how committing to doing RAOK had 

been a blessing in my life & what the Bible has to say about blessing others.  

The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;

those who help others are helped. 

Proverbs 11:25

I wanted to leave them with a little something to encourage them to do RAOK's 

with their children so I created a fun little fall paper chain full of ideas. 

Most are no cost but a few ideas have a cost associated with them. 

They can cut the strips apart and make a chain 

and each day have one of their children pull off a link for the family to complete. 

Wouldn't this be fun to add to your thankful tree in November? 

You can print out your own copy HERE. 

20 Things We Should All Say More Often

I love Kid President.

That kid is wise beyond his years and oh so stinkin' cute!

I love this video where he shares 20 things we should all say more often.

What else do you think we should add to the list?

thanksGIVING Day 12

thanksGIVING Day 11

thanksGIVING Day 10

thanksGIVING Day 9

thanksGIVING Day 8

thanksGIVING Day 4

I think that in addition to talking about all that we are thankful for, 

we should also spend the month of November

focusing on the second part of the name of the holiday: 

GIVING. 

Giving to those we love and those around us 

and even those we don't know at all. 

It doesn't have to be big or elaborate or costly, 

just given from the heart. 

To help you {and me} out, I've compiled a list of

 50 different random acts of kindness- 

ways to give to others. 

You can find all 50 HERE but I'll be posting one each day here

 and on FB as a daily reminder. 

How sweet would it be if we all gave to others every single day this month?

OR

I even made some cute new little tags to go with your acts of kindness. 

You can download the tags {4 to a sheet} HERE.  

thanksGIVING Day 3

 I think that in addition to talking about all that we are thankful for, 

we should also spend the month of November

focusing on the second part of the name of the holiday: 

GIVING. 

Giving to those we love and those around us 

and even those we don't know at all. 

It doesn't have to be big or elaborate or costly, 

just given from the heart. 

To help you {and me} out, I've compiled a list of

 50 different random acts of kindness- 

ways to give to others. 

You can find all 50 HERE but I'll be posting one each day here

 and on FB as a daily reminder. 

How sweet would it be if we all gave to others every single day this month?  

OR 

I even made some cute new little tags to go with your acts of kindness. 

You can download the tags {4 to a sheet} HERE.  

thanksGIVING

I love Love LOVE Thanksgiving.

I love that it's a holiday that we focus on being grateful and thankful

 for all that we've been blessed with.  

I love seeing everyone post what they are 

thankful for each day in November on Facebook.  

But I think that in addition to talking about all that we are thankful for, 

we should also spend the month 

focusing on the second part of the name of the holiday: 

GIVING. 

Giving to those we love and those around us 

and even those we don't know at all. 

It doesn't have to be big or elaborate or costly, 

just given from the heart. 

To help you {and me} out, I've compiled a list of

 50 different random acts of kindness- 

ways to give to others. 

You can find all 50 HERE but I'll be posting one each day here

 and on FB as a daily reminder. 

How sweet would it be if we all gave to others every single day this month?  

Here's the first one: 

I even made some cute new little tags to go with your acts of kindness. 

You can download the tags {4 to a sheet} HERE.  

Sweet RAOK Signs

It's Random Acts of Kindness week which 

is one of my favorite weeks of all time!

Over the past few years I've posted several little notes you can use 

for RAOK some of which you can find HERE and HERE and HERE.

Before my surgery I prepared a little list of RAOK for Madison 

and her sweet friends who spent my surgery day with her to do.  

I loved thinking of them performing acts of kindness at MD Anderson

 instead of just sitting and worrying about me.

The list included things like.......

• Hang up sweet signs in bathroom stalls or magazines for people to find.
• Take a cookie to one of the workers at MDA. Try to find someone that people wouldn’t necessarily think of doing something nice for -janitor, registration folks, people who work in the gift shop, cafeteria, etc. 
• Take a walk and strike up a conversation with someone who looks lonely or scared. Pray with them if you feel led to.
• Go buy a bottle of water and take it to one of the valets outside. Thank them for the job that they do!
• Go find a kid waiting in a waiting room somewhere and give them a coloring book and crayons or some bubbles to help them pass the time. Offer to color with them!
• Tape some money to a vending machine along with a sticky note that your write a note on.
• Take some of the verse cards and find a waiting room with magazines. Put a verse card inside a magazine for someone to find as they are reading the magazine.

A few days after surgery I loved hearing all about their adventures 

and even had a sweet friend take pictures of them performing some of their random acts!

I realized that I never shared the sweet signs I made for them to post 

and thought this week was a great time to do so!  

These are awesome to hang in bathroom stalls or on mirrors in dressing rooms

 or just slip in a book or magazine for someone to find.  

I'm a firm believer that God will have the exact person who needs

 them the most stumble across them at the perfect time.  

    

  

You can find the sign HERE in both PDF and JPG versions. 

To Print: Just download the JPG, save to your computer, right click on the file 

and choose Print from the drop down menu. 

You can choose the size 

and then how many of the image you'd like to print.

RAOK Boomerang

A sweet reader wrote me recently {Hi Esther!} 

and said that she had an idea for a printable. 

She's a teacher and there had been some discord among the grade levels 

at her campus so she decided to start a RAOK Boomerang! 

{Her idea was to do it like the BOO many do at Halloween}

Here's how it works: Someone leaves something in your box and 

you pay it forward by leaving a treat in someone else's box. 

 In order to keep track of who has been RAOKed and to not repeat recipients, 

you tape a little note on your box that says, "I've been RAOKed".

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea and made 

her a little sign for them to print out and use! 

The possibilities with this one are ENDLESS! 

You could do this for co-workers, for neighbors, for friends, for family!

Download your own copy HERE and start your own RAOK Boomerang!

{And if you do it I would LOVE to hear about it!}

Kindness is....

Love love LOVE this quote!

Click HERE to print out  your own copy!