After thinking about the benefits of making RAK a priorty in part one of the Random Acts of Kindness series, I am super pumped to jump in and start performing Random Acts of Kindness today, but that wasn’t always the case.
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How Our Family Started Our RAK Project After Getting a Little Nudge
A few years ago, I felt this urge to do one Random Act of Kindness a week for one year. I wanted my son to experience the joy of helping others. Really, I felt more than just an urge. I felt lead! In fact, after praying for guidance, signs kept pushing me towards this RAK idea, and yet, I kept hesitating. I was just so busy. I had a newborn and a toddler, and the thought of doing this RAK thing was a little overwhelming. Not knowing how to begin, I just kept putting it off until this happened…
Others Were Kind to Us
It was my three year old son’s very first day of preschool ever. The day had gone so smoothly until I had to pick him up from school. I picked him up, put him in the car, and buckled him in; then, I buckled my two- month-old in the car seat next to him. I put my purse in the passenger seat, closed the doors, walked to the driver side and pulled on the door handle… The driver door would not open! I had one of those new keyless entry cars. With those keyless entry cars, you never have to take your keys out of your purse to unlock the door. The car unlocks all by itself when it senses the keys are near. In addition, the car is not suppose to lock all by itself, and you are not suppose to be able to lock your keys in your car. Well, my car had a fluke malfunction. I could not get any of the doors opened!!!
My 3-year-old and newborn were locked in the car and it was NOON on a hot day in AUGUST!!!! So on my son’s first day of school, I dialed 911. The firemen pulled up with lights flashing. I was shocked when they began pumping oxygen into the car. When I saw them do this, I exclaimed, “How long is it going to take to get the doors opened?!?! Just break a window if it is going to take so long that we need to pump oxygen!!!” Fortunately, the firemen got them out in a couple of minutes.
I Had to Pay It Forward
During the whole ordeal, many church members, staff, and preschool staff stayed to comfort me. They flagged down the fire truck, and afterwards, they stayed longer to offer emotional support, water, wet rags to cool off the children, and even called my family for me to explain why I was late. My church and preschool family, and the firemen were my heroes that day. But they did more for me than they know. Because of the kindness shown to me, suddenly I didn’t want to put off RAK any longer. Their kindness meant so much to me that I wanted to show kindness to others right away.
Our RAK Journey Began
The next week, I started by giving all my heroes sweet treats and cards expressing my deepest gratitude. What once felt overwhelming became much easier after that day. Once I started looking for ways to show kindness, I found multiple acts of kindness to do every week.
The impact on my 3-year-old was huge. Not only did he experience acts of kindness from his church family, but he got to experience the joy of showing kindness to others. He is 9 now and often asks about the needy and makes suggestions on what we can do for others.
The lessons I learned from that experience are that
- Just doing nice things for others IS a witness of God’s love, and
- Showing kindness CAN really influence others more than I had ever realized. When I think of witnessing, I think of telling others about God, but people showed me God’s love without saying anything. They showed me God’s love by simply showing me unbelievable kindness.
Random Acts of Kindness Ideas List
You can start this amazing RAK journey with your family or your groups and clubs too, and I want to make it easier for you so…
Below is a free downloadable RAK planner which includes 64 Random Act of Kindness Ideas to help you and your family, group, church, or club get started:
The Free Downloadable Random Acts of Kindness Planner
Over the years, we have continued to do Random Acts of Kindness as a family. In fact, to make it a little easier to regularly do Random Acts of Kindness, I have organized a planner and made RAK cards. These cute little RAK cards say things like “You have Been RAK’ed (Random Acts of Kindness). Use this gift to get a snack for your movie.” This particular card can be taped onto a Redbox along with a little bag of snack money. The planner includes several other cute RAK cards as well. I give this downloadable RAK planner to all Mindfulness in Faith and Food subscribers along with several other free printable downloads. To get this Random Acts of Kindness Planner click here.
With Love,
Lacy
P.S. You can find more RAK posts below!
Related Posts
Why You Should Start a Random Acts of Kindness Project
Random Acts of Kindness: The Ulitmate Ideas List
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