40 Acts: Day 5, 6 & 7

Day 5 was a bit of a random one where you could read up about Fairtrade or buy something that is a Fairtrade product. It was the end of the month so buying something was not really an option but I Googled it and learnt quite a lot about Fairtrade and I really like what they are doing. It's important that farm works and people working in production should get decent wages, working areas and living conditions. I also discovered that I already buy quite a few  products that are Fairtrade products - so I never felt to bad about not buying something.
 

Day 6 was harder than I thought. It was to write a gratitude letter. I thought it would be easy to choose someone but I had so many people to choose from that was pretty hard and then to sit down and put words to paper... I think after three attempts I finally got the words out correctly. I've decided to write a few letters during lent to some people who I am super grateful to have in my life and then post it to them. I'm pretty excited by this challenge - even though it's hard, but I love writing letters to people and posting them adds another level of fun because they don't know they're going to get it until it arrives in the post and post is always exciting to receive.

 

 

 

Day 7 is another hard challenge. I have to give something away that I like to someone. I have lots of things that I like but sharing isn't something I like to do or giving away my stuff. I sat and thought about what I can give away and I've decided to give away my rainbow scarf that I had actually bought for a friend. I never gave it to them because I liked it too much and kept it. Today is the day I give it to her. 

 

 

These challenges are really stretching me in giving and sharing Gods love and living how Jesus would live. Sometimes there's no time - well I want to do something else, or I'm tired or I don't like the idea of the challenge. Even though it's challenging it is helping me to live with more gratitude and wanting to bless people more with what I have in my hand no matter how small it is.

 

xKx

 

40 Acts: Day 2 and Day 3

I never managed to do my act of kindness yesterday as none of our neighbours were at home. We had to say hi to our neighbours and have a conversation with them. I wanted to go and talk to the weird lady opposite us, but she wasn't home. I also knew that she had, had a fall and I bought her some flowers - kind of an in road to talk to her. When I couldn't find her I thought I would go and speak to Elizabeth our landlady but I think she had taken her dog for a walk...

Now I have a bunch of roses in our house to give to someone and a conversation to be had with one of my neighbours.

Besides still having to do yesterday's challenge I also have to do today's challenge... Pick up litter.

David and I are going on a hike later so I'm going to take a plastic bag with us to put any litter I find on the mountain into it.

xKx

Doing lent differently

Today is the start of lent and if someone asked me what it means I probably wouldn't be able to tell you. All I know is that it's 40 days before Easter and some Christians - mostly Catholics fast/give up something for this time.  To me, lent has never meant much until last year when I did the 40 Acts challenge.  Instead of fasting something for 40 days you do 40 random acts of kindness during lent. Each morning I would get an email with what random act was selected for the day and then I would do it. It was a lot of fun. When I saw the video on Facebook that they were doing it again this year I was like - "yes, I MUST do this again"

The really cool thing about this initiative is that it reminds us that we, as Christian's should be doing this everyday. It takes nothing to do or say something kind to someone and it's definitely one way to show Jesus's love to the people around you.

I'm going to attempt to do a short post, with a photo if possible each day of the random act selected for the day.

Today's one is to start a journal and write a list of people you want to bless during lent this year. I'm going to do this when I get home from work. I think it's a brilliant idea - it'll also help you to pick someone different each day to bless.

I'm excited for the next 14 days!

xKx

Random Act of Kindess

I think that random acts of kindness is a great way to restore so faith in humanity. It helps people realize that there are some kind people out there and that not everyone out there is horrible. I also think that as a Christian when you do a random act of kindness you are able to shine your light for Jesus and show a little bit of His love to the world. 

A month or so ago, there was a thing on Facebook called Neknomination where people were getting nominated to do film themselves drinking, posting it on Facebook and then nominating someone else to do the same thing. Someone changed this to a RAKnomation, (Random Act of Kindness), the same principle applied but you had to do an act of kindness. I thought this was AN awesome idea. 

 

Someone I work with, Stef was RAKnominated. Here's the link to what he did.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9_GxWwojE&app=desktop

 

After watching this, I've been inspired to notice where someone in my direct community may need some help and then stepping out and helping them. To us it may be 10 minutes of out time, but to them it restores faith in humanity, meets a need, brings a smile to their face and reveals Jesus to them.

 

xKx