Act of Kindness – Week #22!!

"Thanksgiving after all, is a word of action!"

Happy Thanksgiving week! The intentional act of kindness this week goes along with the Thanksgiving holiday, of course, but I encourage you continue it even after Thanksgiving!

Have you heard the phrase, “better late than never”?! Well that describes me right now…this week I wrote out “thank you” notes for my October 18^th birthday. The notes did not just include thanks to the individual for the presents I received from them but also thanks to God for the blessing of having them in my life as well! Yes, those notes are five weeks late so I currently really like the phrase, “better late than never”! Have the recipients of these notes noticed that I have not written them one yet? Probably not…but the point is that I truly believe there is power/kindness when people take the time and effort to go out of their way to say “thank you”.

  

*The act of kindness this week...show kindness by continuously going out of your way to express thanks to the people around you or to someone who you have not talked to in a while so that you can live a life of thanksgiving!!

*My experience with the act of kindness… I am not going to share my specific experiences with this because it could possibly be one of you reading this blog post. Instead, I am going to take this wonderful opportunity to share something even greater than continuously thanking other people, which is continuously thanking God! I included parts of two devotions from “She Reads Truth” below that communicates giving thanks to God in sorrow and plenty!

Give Thanks In Sorrow

Text: Psalm 31:1-24, Psalm 34:18, Psalm 56:8

“If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.” - Psalm 34:18, The Message

Sometimes, I feel like God is asking me to put a mute on my feelings. When His Word says to be thankful in every situation, I find myself thinking, Even in this? In grief, in fear, in sorrow? You can’t possibly mean in this….God doesn’t ask us to silence our sorrow in favor of thanksgiving. Rather, He uses our sorrow to proclaim a type of thanksgiving we wouldn’t be able to express otherwise….Thanksgiving doesn’t devour your sorrow, but it acknowledges the Glory that will. The thanks be to Him who says our sorrows will be worth it. The giving of our souls to say that, even if our earthly hopes have been deferred, our eternal hope will never be lost. When you think you’ll never again be able to sing a song of thanksgiving, try it anyway. Our hearts may not be comfortable praising tragedy, loss, or bad days, but our hearts were created to praise the Hope of Glory.

  

Give Thanks In Plenty

Text: Psalm 23:1-6, Psalm 105:1-5, 1 Chronicles 29:10-13

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. - Psalm 25:5a

It seems so simple—give thanks in plenty. That’s what those cornucopia centerpieces are all about, right? We’ve been talking for a week about sorrow and injustice and stress and suffering. “Plenty” we can handle…Literal plenty makes a whole lot of sense to me—to all of us. We know it when we see it. We slap a “hashtag blessed” on the gifts we’ve been given, knowing full well Who that Giver is. But I just can’t imagine that’s where we ought to land today. I don’t think that’s it. Friends, plenty is oh-so-much-more than moments and mail and meatloaf. “Plenty” does not equal prosperity, just as “want” does not equal poverty. Our circumstances are not situated on a sliding scale from famine to abundance, and we would be sorely mistaken to allow our “thanks” to take a ride on that hypothetical scale. For the believer, plenty and want are both constant states of being. Yes, we all have real, felt needs. And we have noticeable, tangible blessings. But beyond the surface—in light of eternity—our constant state is a want of grace, and God is our constant and plentiful supplier. HE is our plenty. Our overflowing cups have absolutely nothing to do with bank accounts or people or horn-shaped centerpieces. They do not overflow with success and they do not empty with failure. Our cups overflow with the grace and mercy of an Everlasting God—they overflow because there is always more than we can ask or imagine. THIS is our plenty. Wherever we find ourselves on the worldly poverty-to-prosperity scale, let us see ourselves in constant want of His grace and ever in possession of an overflowing cup of mercy from an all-sufficient God. And let us give thanks.

One thing that I have been so grateful for this past month is the encouragement, insight, advice and wisdom from others on not just being thankful in the month of November but living a life of thanksgiving! Thanksgiving should not just be a one day event to express your thanks and gratitude. Thanksgiving needs to be a condition of the heart! Let us strive from here on out to live a LIFE of thanksgiving!

  

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