There may be a national day to celebrate almost everything, but we won’t be the ones to complain about a chance to celebrate something we care about. 🙂 We’re partial to national days that celebrate pizza (February 9), donuts (June 1), and even puppies (March 23), but we also love tomorrow’s national day—national random acts of kindness day. Gather your small group, friends, or family and throw out all the ideas your can muster of ways to serve others. Get creative and dream up ways to serve that you’re passionate about. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Be Generous
- Leave a larger tip than normal.
- Let a car merge in front of you.
- Buy the person behind you in line his or her meal/coffee.
- Leave a gas gift card at a gas pump.
Write It Out
- Send snail mail or a postcard to someone you love.
- Leave notes for your mail carrier and trash collection service telling them how much you appreciate them.
- Send a quick text telling someone you are thinking or praying for them today.
- Write a review for your favorite online business. This can go a long way in encouraging new business owners and bringing in new customers!
Grab Your Apron
- Bake some treats to bring to the office or to hand out to neighbors.
- Make a meal for someone you know in a time of transition. It can be especially fun to have a small group meeting where you each bring an ingredient and make a meal in bulk to then deliver to different families in need throughout your church/community!
Share Encouraging Words
- Tell the person working the check-out register how thankful you are for them.
- Compliment the first three people you talk to today.
- Have a really great customer service experience? Take time to praise that employee to his or her manager.
- Thank your spouse for the ways they love and serve your family.
Donate
- Find out what your local food bank’s current needs are and grab a few of those items the next time you’re at the store to donate.
- Pack Ziploc bags full of essentials/snacks as a small group to hand out to the homeless in your city.
- Know parents looking to have a night off? Offer to babysit for free!
The wonderful thing about random acts of kindness is that they aren’t meant to be anything crazy or extravagant; they’re meant to be simple, but genuine, expressions of God’s love to others.
If you’re anything like us, it can be fun to come up with creative ways to serve and love others, but it can be hard to actually do those things—even when they’re simple. When you think about the barriers that keep you from doing that one extra thing for someone, what comes to mind? For us, busyness and stress usually take the cake. When we’ve overcommitted ourselves and become hyper-focused on our to-do list, we miss so many opportunities to serve others. Take some time to pray that God would open your eyes and heart to the ways you can serve others tomorrow (and the days following) so that you won’t miss the opportunities that come your way!
Have other ideas for random acts of kindness to spread God’s love tomorrow? Share them with us in the comments below!