The night before last, I opened this month's bill for my daughter's private school. I have been feeling bummed that all of my income lately has been going straight to the school, and I wasn't sure if we would be able to pull of Christmas this year without using credit cards. Imagine my surprise when, instead of owing nearly $300, we actually had a $20 credit for this month!! I examined the invoice and discovered a $210 grant and a $100 anonymous payment. That random act of kindness brought me to tears. It drives me crazy that I can't thank whoever it was, but I was so touched by it and I felt moved to do the same.
A quick Google search of "Random Acts of Kindness" will bring up roughly a gazillion ideas. There is apparently an actual thing called 25 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. I have decided to use that $100 anonymous payment and combine it with a check I received in the mail today for some data entry work I did last week. That will be our RACK fund for this project.
I am not blogging about this to toot my own horn or to seek praise. I am blogging about this to spread the excitement of being on the receiving end of such blessings, and to spread the excitement (I hope!) of being on the giving end of such blessings.
I sat the kids down this morning and explained to them what we are doing and why, and I was very surprised by their instant reaction and list of suggestions. We talked about different scenarios and I asked them if they could think of anything kind we could do for people in each of the scenarios. It took the 4 year old a couple minutes to catch on. For example, I told them we would be going out for dinner tonight and asked if they could think of anything kind we could do while we were there, and he said, "We could eat supper!" But he's 4. Once he sees these things starting to happen, he will catch on.
They are very excited to start this, and have been brainstorming ideas. I will post every day with our RACK of the day. Hopefully I'll be able to snap quick photos each day, but I'm sure it won't be possible for some of them.
I found a blank "Random Act of Christmas Kindness" card online that we are going to print a bunch of and write a quick note on to explain to the receiver what we are doing. I don't want anyone throwing away a perfectly good gift card just because they assume it is empty! lol.
So how about you? We are all blessed to have the ability to earn a little extra income on eBay. Can you set aside just a little bit of your sales over the next couple weeks and find a way to bless someone else? Let's see how many RACK's we can perform this month as a group. Please comment here if you perform a RACK, so we have lots of ideas over the next couple weeks.
All year, I give to a man, an ex-Vietnam vet, who stands on our busy urban neighborhood corners with his sign. I give whatever cash I have in my purse, even if it is a handful of change. I never know when I will see him, but I have always have had cash to give! I even know his name now and his history, as we have chatted at red lights. He is at a tough place in life. It is really hard to jump start your life when you are a certain age with some health issues too. We can't help everyone, but this man is the one on my heart.
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