Acts of Kindness

I wanted to take a moment to report on the Great Kindness Challenge, hoping that some of you out there took the challenge and came up with something kind to do last Saturday. If so, please share your experience in the comments below.  

I have to say, when you come into a room full of ladies with a bunch of flowers in your hands, people tend to perk up a little. You can almost hear them thinking, “Who is getting those? Could it be me?”

A dozen strangers at my church got an individually wrapped pink rose put at their seats. I left them randomly while most of the ladies were out of the room, because once I got there, I realized I’d have to choose 12 ladies out of dozens, an impossible task. Who’s to say one is more worthy than another? Not me, that’s for sure.

Anyway, it was nice to see that my first experiment went so well. Everyone was thrilled to get their flowers. A couple people did identify me as the culprit giving them out and asked why, so I told them about the Great Kindness Challenge.

The next kindness task was for one of the pastors at this church. Since we’ve only been going there a few months and he was an assistant pastor that I’d only heard preach one time, I wasn’t sure what his name was. But that one sermon had been unforgettable.

While he was talking about temptation and overcoming it, he had a symbol of his own battle in front of him in the form of a hamburger patty, with onions, cheese, tomato and his favorite of all—BACON. He cooked the whole thing up while he gave the sermon. Talk about multitasking!

And despite his longings, he also gave it away after the sermon. He spent quite a while explaining how bacon makes everything better and he needed to try bacon-wrapped bacon.

So, when I was buying a card for a friend’s birthday and stumbled upon a sign that said in symbols, I Love Bacon, a little voice in my head (which I’m sure was from God) said “Buy it!” It wasn’t hard at all to leave it on his desk for him. I didn’t get to see his reaction, but the secretary who let me in said he would love it!

I then went to Walmart and got a few things I needed and looked at the flowers again. I decided to get some vibrant orange, yellow and purple daisies this time. I thought of several places to give them out, but I ended up at our local Methodist thrift shop.

After asking if I could give them out, I waited for shoppers to come by and offered flowers to them. Some said no, but changed their minds when they found out they were free. Others accepted them happily.

I, in return, accepted their smiles and thanks and thought, who’s getting the better deal here, them or me?

Altogether it was a lovely day and although I didn’t end world hunger or promote world peace, I definitely made some people smile. Did you? If you did, please share your acts of kindness in the comments whether or not they happened on Saturday. I’m always looking for great ideas! Thanks and God Bless.