Fun Monday - Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)

Today's assignment is given by Mommy Wizdom. Here is the assignment:

1) Your job this week is to go out and perform a random act of kindness.

2) Then, blog about what you did and why. How did it impact the person(s) you did it for? And better yet, how did it impact you!? How did you feel after you did it? Would you do it again?

Or

3) If you've had a random act of kindness bestowed on you (recently), we'd love to hear about it. How did it impact you? How did it make you feel? That's it!

First, I want to write about this RAK bestowed on me. This past summer I was watching my nephews for my sister in-law while she was at work. After spending most of the day indoors because it was one of those hot, humid days we often have on the east coast, I decided to take all four kids (my two nephews and my two girls) out for a mouthwatering, thirst quenching snowball. When we arrived at the snowball stand, I went up to check the prices and flavors they had to offer. While I was looking over the menu, I noticed a lady standing behind me, so I turned and told her to go ahead of me and then I went back to my car to help everyone out. When I returned to my car, I checked my pocket book and realized I only had enough money to buy each person a small snowball. After I told everyone to only order smalls, we anxiously walked up, scanned the menu, and placed our orders. When I went to pay, the cashier said, "Oh, you don't owe any money." Surprised and confused, I asked, "Why?" and she replied, "The lady in front of you paid for everyone's snowballs." When I looked for the lady to thank her, she was already driving away.

I will never forget the kindness that came from a complete stranger that day. I love telling that story because it goes to show you there are nice people in this world. It has certainly opened my eyes and made me realize that I wanted to reach out to someone I don't know and touch their life the way mine was touched. Which is why I chose to write about the next RAK.

The RAK I took part in was a mission from our church called Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child is a mission project to help needy and less fortunate children living in deprived countries, experience the magic and joy of Christmas. Our project was simple. All we had to do was pack up a shoe box full of age and gender appropriate things (i.e, new socks, toothbrushes, small toys), pack them in the shoebox, indicate on a label that is adhered to the top of the box, the age and gender we chose, enclose a check to handle shipping costs, and drop off the box at our church. From there, volunteers delivered our shoe boxes to a staging area where all of the donated boxes were placed into bigger boxes, and then shipped out to children in desperate situations around the world. If you would like to learn more about this organization click here.

I'm so glad I learned about this mission because kids are the joy of my Christmas and I hope our box will brighten and bring joy to the little girl whom we sent our package to. Next Christmas, I'll be happy to package another shoebox for a child who is less fortunate and the year after that.

Thanks for the assignment. I enjoyed sharing my stories and look forward to reading other stories of RAK.