Act of Kindness – Week #10!!

“Be an encourager. One sincere word of encouragement after failure is worth more than a day of praise after success!”

     I returned earlier this week from being gone almost 10 days on a family vacation to Florida! We road tripped for four of those days going through Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and then back later on that week! It was such a blessed week full of some of the people I love the absolute most in life and in such a beautiful location, Pensacola Beach! I am happy to say that being states away from home for a week and a half did not stop me from showing kindness to strangers in a new way!

     Jumping to another topic…I have always liked taking notes, and I am talking about hand written notes! I also have always liked writing notes in cards to send to family and friends! Hand written notes feel more personable to me, and I will probably never grow out of doing it (even with technology continuing to change things)! I also like uplifting quotes and encouraging Bible verses! There are several of these around my home proving this! When I read a Bible verse or quote or think of something encouraging in my head, I write it down right away! Sometimes its grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, sometimes it is emailing it to myself and sometimes it is texting it to myself...whatever is closest! I just do not want to forget the uplifting or encouraging sentence or two! I also like sticky notes and if you come to my desk at work you would see that I write out my to do lists on them and also have a couple of my favorite quotes on a sticky note taped to my desk to read every day too!...So adding a road trip to Florida, encouraging words and hand written sticky notes together, you get a simple but great act of kindness idea!

*The act of kindness this week…show kindness by anonymously leaving encouraging notes in a public place for a stranger to find!! 

 

  

*My experience with the act of kindness…On the drive to Florida and back, whenever we would stop to take a break or eat, I left a hand written sticky note in the bathrooms with an encouraging, positive or uplifting message! There were several times that I left the note and as I walking out of the bathroom, another lady was walking in. I could not help but think about the possible influence of the note she was able to see! This is just a small and simple way to show kindness but to strangers it could have great power! I looked up quotes and Bible verses before leaving for vacation but it does not have to be so planned out either. You could use a napkin, envelope or back of a flyer! You could leave it in a public restroom, at the gym, on a park bench or on a gas pump! You can scribble down whatever comes to your mind..."You are beautiful just the way you are!” etc! The goal is to show kindness by being an encourager! Like one of the sticky notes I left said, “Be an encourager! The world has plenty of critics already.”

     A few encouraging words could leave someone with a smile on their face or make their entire day better! I do believe that writing anonymous encouraging notes to complete strangers to find in a public place could make the world a better place!  Once again, let me ENCOURAGE you to come along side me and start to be intentional about showing kindness to strangers and being encouragers in the process!! 

p.s. Please comment below with your own experience with this act of kindness! I would really enjoy hearing about it!!