For the past 3 years, my sons and I have spent my birthday doing an act of kindness for each of my years. These have turned out to be the best birthdays ever! The unanticipated gifts we received as a result included the following: Gift #1: I realized we were already really nice people! Gift #2 I realized it was really pretty easy to just keep your eyes open and look for opportunities to bless people. Gift #3: I was reminded that I have PLENTY to share and when I live with my hands open, palms up, God's blessing flow much more easily than when I worry about life and feel I need to be tight-fisted.
Some of our acts in the past were pre-meditated, while others were spontaneous and random. Some ideas cost us a little money, and some were completely free. Some of our deeds affected people while others benefited animals and/or the environment. Some of our acts of kindness were towards each other and that is just fine, too! While we don't do these things TO make ourselves feel good, it certainly does warm my heart to see or just know that someone's day was a little brighter because of something I chose to do or say. My sons just LOVE looking through the rear window of the car when we leave a drive-thru after paying for the person's order behind us.
When I realized a milestone birthday was coming, I wanted to do even more. My original plan was to invite friends and family to join us for some planned acts of kindness to magnify the effect. Then I looked at my calendar and saw that my 40th birthday would fall on my 1st teacher planning day. I considered doing the acts of kindness the day before, but I've been trying to make Sunday a day of rest for my sons and I. Then a friend of mine who knew of my plans shared a book with me that I also recommend you read - The Summer I Saved the World in 65 Days. It was a fun, uplifting read and the solution to my conflict. I decided I would spend all summer doing acts of kindness! I figured I could share what I was doing on Facebook, invite local people to join me for some activities and ask friends afar to do what they could in their own communities to help bless the world. I hesitated going online with this because part of the fun in previous years was being sort of sneaky and mysterious about it. I want to glorify God through this gift to the world, and I don't want to turn what I post on Facebook, Instagram, etc. into a "Me" thing. Rather, I hope everyone will share what they're doing as well to inspire others to get involved.
This is also NOT about judgment or feeling bad if you can't do something. Some people have given me ideas that I just know I'm not crafty enough to pull off, but maybe YOU are! Some of you may have more money than time or vice versa. But we can all be mindful as we go about our days looking for someone we could hold a door for, let into a line of traffic, smile a genuine smile at, ask how their day is and actually listen, etc.
As much thought as I've given to what I want to do and how to share with as many people as possible, I've also thought a lot about what to call it. I am not limiting myself to 40 days or 40 acts, but as this came about because I'm almost 40, I chose 40 Days of Kindness and will try using hashtags to link everything together.
As Mother Teresa once said, “In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” As I was preparing to share this goal, I came across this prayer: "Heavenly Father, You are good. You are always kind. I surrender my own agenda to You today and ask that You show me someone who needs a little extra kindness. Help me drink deeply of Your mercy and love toward me and to give freely out of the overflow of that love. Give me eyes to see what You see. In Jesus’ Name, Amen."
There are LOTS of people who have done things like this before, of course, and who have blogged about it. If you want more ideas than what we share here, try these:
https://floweringminds.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/40-random-acts-of-kindness-in-40-days-for-my-big-4-0/
https://www.thebdayproject.com/the-original-38-random-acts-of-birthday-kindess-post.html