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Organized Acts of Kindness (O.A.K.s) We have all heard of “Random Acts of Kindness” and how the tiniest effort can have a profound positive rippling affect. At Leave a Trace, we fully believe in random acts of kindness, but we also think that you can plan intentional acts of kindness to help build your confidence in sharing your faith with others. Stop back here often to read about new examples of people Leaving a Trace on the world through OAKs.
How can you be kind to others? 3/5/11 I was given the opportunity to teach 2nd and 3rd grade Sunday school at my church recently. The coordinator asked me to present Leave a Trace from the perspectives of positive role models and being kind to others. My automatic response was OAKs.
We also spent some time as small groups brainstorming other ways that we can purposely be kind to people we come in contact with. The picture above is a scan of one of the sheets the class did. I think the kids have awesome ideas! How have you deliberately been kind to someone recently? We would love to hear about it! Like this post? Please share it! And we would love to hear from you!
Pick it up! 2/15/11 The weather in N.C. has been beautiful for
the past few days and I was able to take a walk with my 4 year old.
We had a great time picking up acorns and rocks. My pockets
were weighed down and dirty by the time we got back; but what are
you to do when each find is "my special one!"
During our walk I once again was faced with my nemesis, garbage! Because of the cold and wind, there was so much stuff around. I wish that I had brought a pair of plastic gloves and a garbage bag. Hopefully at some point this week we will find a few minutes to go back out and do just that. It is so important to teach our little ones about God's creation and how to care for it. After all, God gave us rule over this world, with the full expectation that we would be careful with it. How do you show your love for creation? Do you have anything special that you or your family does?
Like this post? Please share it! And we would love to hear from you!
Ever thought about dancing with the homeless as your Organized Act of Kindness? 2/9/11
Love 'n Lightbulbs Tuesdays are a “day-off” for me.
Of course by a day off I mean that I only am doing four of my
“jobs” instead of all five on Tuesday!
I bet you wish you were me, right?
Well, in fact, a lot of you are just like me.
You have a lot of different jobs each and every day.
Some people call them “hats” that we put on and take off as
we go through our days, our nights, and our lives.
By this point you may be wondering why I
titled this segment Love ‘n
Light bulbs when I’m talking about reminiscing and hats.
Honestly, sometimes my mind just rambles through things.
A couple of my friends think it is funny.
A few of them roll their eyes
at me. Others just get
this glassed over glazed look.
One of my friends, Andrea, gives me all
three of those looks at any given moment.
But, I think that she still loves me; or at least she does
some of the time! Andrea
is a friend that has a whole bunch of hats that she is trying to
balance right now. She
has the wife/mother hat, the teacher hat, the designer hat, the
friend/sister/take care of herself hat, and I’m sure there are more!
Recently Andrea and I had some time to sit
down and talk. As a
friend looking in I could see that her
take care of herself hat was not being worn very often.
I took some time to listen to and pray for Andrea.
I am so proud of her endeavors of a personal discovery blog
that she has begun and plans to continue for one year.
Who can you intentionally encourage today?
And, check out Andrea’s blog
visualtapestrydesign.blogspot.com!
Her courage to share her passion for art and design is
encouraging.
So proud of my good friend's daughter! In January she cut her hair for Locks of Love for the 3rd time! Way to go girlfriend!
Do you
like to shop? First figure out a budget. It could be as little as $5 or $10 for each family member. Next, decide on the parameters for “winning.” It could be the item that was marked down the most; it could be the biggest item; or it could even be the biggest number of items for the amount spent. Then, find a list of
needs from an organization in your local area.
Here are a few examples from the
Grocery Carts ~ Materials needed:
NONE How many times have you had someone approach you outside of your local
grocery store and ask you to buy something?
From cookies, to newspapers, and candy, I’m more scared of the
people standing at the table outside the store doors than from someone
trying to steal my car in the actual parking lot.
That said, with all caution noted, and only with adult supervision,
wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone walked up to you in the parking lot
and asked if they could put your cart away for you?
I have actually had it done to me.
Twice! Both times it
was elderly gentlemen who simply walked by as I had just finished
emptying my cart, and they simply asked, “Could I take that for you?”
As a mom, who is always in a rush, usually with impatient
children, it was such a simply nice thing.
Another time as I walked by another elderly gentleman who had just
finished emptying his cart, he asked me, “Would you like this cart?”
That also was a pleasure.
My challenge to you, and to myself, would be, the next time you are
heading into a store and you see someone just finishing with their cart,
offer to take it for them.
You might just brighten their day.
Water Bottles ~ Materials needed:
Water bottles, paper, markers/crayons, scissors, clear tape
A
great activity for all ages is to make new labels for water bottles and
hand them out in your community.
What you do is stop by your local discount store and purchase
water bottles. Create your own labels for the bottle and tape them on.
Whenever you leave the house, you can grab a bottle or two and
see if you can find someone to give them to.
Maybe it is your mailman, delivery truck driver, a town worker,
or someone working in your neighborhood.
Garbage ~ Materials needed: Garbage Bag, Rubber Gloves There are days that I am struck by how careless we are with creation. Take a moment to look around and consider just how amazing the world is. There are thousands of species of bugs, birds, and plants. There are hundreds of different natural materials that we use to build our homes, places of work, stores, and the furnishings that go inside. Have you ever thought about the diversity that can be found in foods? Not to mention the hundreds of different seasonings that are available to prepare our food? The truth is I can go on and on with this train of thought and some days I do. God is truly amazing, complex, and way too much for me to fully grasp. But some days I am so self-occupied that I barely notice, let alone remember to thank God for the intricate creation He gave us to care for. Right now my youngest child is a preschooler. One of the lessons we have been working on with him is making sure he puts his garbage in the garbage can and not just dropping it on the ground. Like any young child, he tests the limits of the rules given him. I have found him a number of times looking at a candy wrapper, scrap of paper, or even tissue that has fallen to the ground. He will quickly look up at me with questioning eyes, wondering how I will respond. (Don't we do that with God all the time?) And sure enough he is asked to pick up the garbage and dispose of it properly. I must confess though, there are times that I do not do as I teach. There are times when I am climbing out of the car, my hands full of lunch boxes, bags, and other paraphernalia and some small scrap goes flying away, or even lands at my feet. And there are times that I look around to see who is looking and then choose to ignore it. Usually it is out of frustration or exhaustion, but sometimes there is no reason at all and most times there is absolutely no acceptable excuse. Have you ever done something like this? Recently it has stood out to me just how often this scenario or a similar one must play out in the parking lots all around our town. It seems that every time we get out of the car I stop my preschooler from picking up someone else' garbage (he's assimilating that lesson well) and tell him that we need to get gloves to pick it up (I'm a minor germ-a-phobe.) Then I think to myself that, that would be a wonderful OAK! It would be so God honoring to get together with friends, a small group, or family, pull on the rubber gloves and start cleaning up. We will never be able to keep up with all of the misplaced garbage on our own, but maybe, we will make an impression on others and people might think a bit harder when something flies out of their car. Maybe they will make the effort to collect their own garbage next time. And just maybe some will also stop leaving those horrible little sample cups in the grocery store carts too!
Serving Hot Chocolate ~ Materials needed: Carafe, Hot Chocolate, Hot drink cups At our Secret Servants Youth Group we decided it would be really nice to make hot chocolate and take it to one of the many different ball fields in our town. We wanted to just do something nice for the parents that were sitting on the side lines, for no reason other than to be nice. I asked all the kids to wear their youth group t-shirts so that people would know that we were with the church. As we arrived at the first fields we saw that there were no games happening so we decided to drive about 4 miles to the next field, where we were, once again, disappointed to see no games (it had rained for the past 24 hours and the fields were still wet.) So we talked about going back to church and serving the hot chocolate to other youth groups or to Bible studies that were happening. At the very last second, as we were driving by a field that we were a bit leery to go to (for no other reason than they are the more “professional” field around with the concession stand and all), we made a quick decision to try it. We parked and got out of the car and I started pouring cups of hot chocolate to hand out. All of the teens were really nervous (and I was too). Later we asked them why and they said simply because it is hard to be rejected. And we were rejected! Quite a few people, especially at first, simply said no. They looked at us like we were crazy. Quite a few people offered us money to pay for the hot chocolate and a number of people wanted to know why we were doing it. One woman even asked if we were handing it out because we had leftovers and when I told her that we just decided to bring some over, she genuinely looked touched. At the same time we got a number of people who refused to even make eye contact with us. It took a while, but we finally were able to hand out all of our hot chocolate. During our debriefing time with the teens afterwards we asked them if it was easy or hard to do. They all said it was hard. And it is hard to step out of the norm and share a bit of yourself in a fallen world. We also asked the kids if they could do the same thing if we asked them to go and give a bit of Jesus out at the ball fields. That is when one beautiful young lady said that we can give out a bit of Jesus by how we behave. I am always amazed at the wisdom of our youth. One lesson that I took from the evening is how amazingly difficult it is for people to accept a free cup of hot chocolate. I think it gives some insight into how hard it is for people to accept the free gift of eternal life from Jesus. |
 Shoppers wait in line for up to 2 hours to get into the church's consignment sale. A team serves donuts & coffee for free during the wait. Sometimes a little nice-ity goes a long way.  Recently the girls made homemade dog cookies and sold them around the neighborhood to raise money for the police departments pet food pantry!   There were innumerable lessons that came out of this evening of serving hot chocolate at the local baseball fields.  Tweet |
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LeaveaTrace.net, Leave a Trace, O.A.K.s, and Whispers are Trademarks of Leave a Trace. All images ©2010 - 2011, Leave a Trace. All Rights Reserved. All writing published on www.leaveatrace.net is meant for inspiration. Any similarities found with personal experiences are considered a "God Thing."
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I
told the story of Elisha and Elijah from 2 Kings and how Elisha
learned from Elijah to treat others with kindness and serve the
Lord. We then re-labled water bottles with Christian messages
and put together candy and hand made bookmarks. The challenge
was for the kids to give both to someone, not in their family,
during the week. 
It
definitely doesn't have to be all that organized to go find some
people on the streets and ask them to dance with you. It might
just lift their spirits and you never know what it might do for you.
I can't say that this is in my comfort zone personally, but you
never know. Some day I just might!
