Week 2 Link Up: 30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness with Your Kids

I’m choosing not to share our acts of kindness this week. Yep, I totally realize that was kinda the point of this series. But I was convicted after reading a chapter from the book Your God is too Safe by Mark Buchanan. In this chapter, the author points out 3 holy habits (aka spiritual disciplines) that are beneficial to all Christians:  solitude, silence, and secrecy. In the excerpt below, the author is specifically talking about the holy habit of secrecy. Earlier in the chapter he talks about how secrecy is not the same as secretiveness.

“Secretiveness is hiding something out of shame, out of humiliation, out of selfishness. But secrecy, as a holy habit, is hiding something out of humility…

Jesus says in Matthew 6:1, ‘Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them.’  He goes on to give three examples–giving, praying, and fasting–where we should do these things in secret so that our Father, who sees, will reward us. So be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. It’s that last part that we need to emphasize:  to be seen by them. It’s not that we never let anyone see us doing good deeds. Just a chapter earlier in Matthew, Jesus tells us to ‘let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16). It all comes down to motive, and the options are stark:  Either we do things in order to be seen by others, or we do them in order to bring praise to God” (p. 183-184).

By sharing this series with you, I’ve wanted all along for God to be glorified through our acts of kindness and for the Holy Spirit to lead us to do things for others. I don’t want it to ever become about what we have done to bring glory to ourselves. My motive in sharing with you all has been two-fold:  (1) to hold myself accountable…public accountability works wonders and (2) to share ideas on how to go out of our way to show kindness to others because I myself have trouble coming up with things (which is completely bizarre…how in the world can I not think of ways to be kind???). But I feel much better sharing with you what others are doing rather than what we are doing!

So this week I’d like to point out something that someone else is doing instead. If you’ve never been to the blog Joy’s Hope, you seriously need to check it out. Last week, I saw on Pinterest that Julie (from Joy’s Hope) started the ‘Happy Day Project’ which is very similar to what we’ve been doing. But she has some AWESOME printables that make our acts of kindness even happier!

Here are the seven ideas (and the adorable printables that go with each):

• Day 1:  Bake your neighbors a special treat.
• Day 2:  Write a note of encouragement.
• Day 3:  Give a gift card to a person who is homeless.
• Day 4:  Give a book to a friend (or donate to a hospital).
• Day 5:  Refresh someone with a bottle of water (or their favorite soda).
• Day 6:  Thank someone who serves your country or community.
• Day 7:  Assemble blessing bags to give to the needy or those who are homeless.

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