Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

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 ...

Next Saturday is the day! The Great Kindness Challenge ! I am so excited because I already have an idea for something to do. You see, the church I have been attending is having a ladies’ brunch that day which I have been looking forward to because I am new at the church. I’m eager to meet some other ladies and find out what this church does for missions work. Since it’s the Great Kindness Challenge, I think I will stop beforehand and get a dozen roses and individually wrap them and give them out to random ladies at the brunch. What will you do for the Great Kindness Challenge? If you need some ideas, the Kids for Peace , who started the challenge, have a few ideas (25 to be specific) on their website . They range from things like smiling at people and making thank you cards, to cleaning up and planting a tree. Of course we want to do kind acts every day, but this is a day to help us remember that and give us a few hints on what kinds of things we can do. I had gotten in th...

I am ecstatic. My husband who has been in Kuwait for a year and in Birmingham the year before is BACK!   He’s been home for a little over a week. We went on a nearby base a couple of days ago and I stopped and got Slim Jims for the guys at the gate.   It’s something I started doing back during Random Acts of Kindness week in February. I bring them snacks since they’re on their feet outside for hours at a time.   He asked me why I did it and I said because I like to. Another great kindness event is coming up next Saturday, the Great Kindness Challenge .   It’s an event aimed at getting children involved in helping others, but it’s also a great day for everyone to do as many kind deeds as they can. If you’re having trouble thinking of some things your kids can do, the Great Kindness Challenge website has a list of 50 suggestions which you can print and check off as you do them.   They include things like leaving a flower on someone’s doorstep, reading a b...