commit acts of kindness

I was out taking some stuff to the mailbox this morning and it was pouring rain. I took two of our neighbors newspapers up to their porch so they wouldn’t have to walk out to the rain to get them. So simple!

I Freecycled 3 HUGE tubs of baby clothes this morning as well as gave 2 big gift bags full to neighbors expecting (one a boy, one a girl). Felt good to get rid of the clothes and to bless others!

Last night I was driving to Target and at the corner of the intersection was a very pregnant lady holding up a sign that said “Need help paying this months rent…it’s been a hard month”. I drove on thinking about her and couldn’t get her out of my mind. I see people like this all the time, but for some reason the fact that she was pregnant really got to me.

On my way out of the parking lot, I stopped and gave her $10. Not much, but I knew if I didn’t do anything I’d feel guilty about it. She was probably a scam artist or something, but I hope not.

This was another non-random act. I received a $50 Starbucks gift card probably over a year ago. I’ve been using it little by little, dwindling it down over the months. Taking 3 kids into Starbucks is not the highlight of my life, so I don’t do it, therefore, I don’t visit very often.

Well, I finally got it down to about $10 at the airport (After trying their new White Chocolate hot chocolate…yummmy!!). There was an older lady just browsing around the kiosk… picking things up, setting it down, oooing and ahhing over various things. After paying with my gift card, I turned around and said that I’d like for her to have the remaining $10 amount as it would take me forever to use it up. Her face lit up and she was very grateful. Hopefully she will be able to use it up faster than I was!

I’m recording this here too so I remember, but I purchased an item from a random person’s wish list on Amazon yesterday and had it mailed out to them :)

I went to Bed Bath and Beyond today with two coupons. I knew I wouldn’t use both today, but thought I might use the other one later.
Well, when I was in line to check out, there was a lady on her cell phone behind me. She was talking about a gift registry and that the person who had registered “registered for nothing inexpensive!”.

After she got off the phone, I turned around and asked if she wanted my $5 off coupon. She gladly and very thankfully accepted. She thanked me over and over and over.

It wasn’t random, but I’m glad I did that. She was very thankful :)

Maybe I need to change this goal to just acts of kindness versus random acts of kindness. We passed a pink lemonade stand this morning and I turned around and pulled up to it and didn’t see any lemonade. The little girl said that she had just got set up and her little brother was coming with the lemonade. I gave her a dollar anyway and told her to have fun! I asked if she was earning money for anything in particular and she said “no, so I can give you your money back”. I told her just to keep it and to buy something she wanted with it.

I remember doing lemonade stands when I was little. We always had brownies too. Making a sale was always fun, and adding up the money at the end of the day was fun too!
I hope that she has a successful day :)