Day 3 - Blast from the Past

Today, let's prayerfully think back over someone we are grateful to that we haven't seen in a long time.

A grade school teacher?
A piano teacher?
A college professor?
An aunt or uncle you once spent the summer with?
A high school band director?
A Sundayschool teacher?
A pastor from a church you haven't attended in years?

(feel free to suggest more ideas!)

Once you've thought of a few people who were blessings to you once upon a time, see if you can find an email or snail mail address or phone number for that person - and surprise them with a "thank you."

Even a postcard saying, "Thinking of you today, and the way your encouragement when I was young helped shape my work today" will be a delightful "out of the blue" surprise!

Let's be detectives and see if we can find some people from our past and thank them!

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

How Can I Help?

What precious words!

Lately I've had the gift of that question offered to me by several friends.

I was talking about some discouragement . . . okay, I'll be honest, more of a feeling of hopelessness about some things that matter deeply to me.

Several friends, via email, phone, or in person, listened, cared, and said those precious words. How can I help?

Today, when someone across from us is angry, hurt, hopeless, or weary, let's offer a shoulder, a hand, a hug. And before giving suggestions, let's first meet their eyes and ask, "How can I help?"

Sometimes a person is too lost in the dark valley to KNOW what to ask for, or what they need. They may not be able to answer that question. Then we can get creative and offer a few ideas.

Sixteen years ago, I was seriously ill for several months. I was so sick that when people asked how they could help, I was too muddle-headed to think of an answer. So friends came up with their own ideas and shared love in a zillion ways.

One of the most unique was a woman from church that I didn't know too well at the time. She called up and said, "Can I please come over and clean your bathroom for you? I'm good at cleaning, and I want to help, and that's something I could do for you."

What a wonderful, specific, humble, beautiful offer!

I still remember how great it felt, after so many weeks of not being able to keep up on housework, to have a sparkling clean bathroom.

Has anyone asked you this wonderful question lately?

And have you had an opportunity to ask it of anyone?

Leave a comment and you'll be entered in my next drawing for a Penny's Project notebook (beautifully hand-crafted by a friend of mine...another of those women who ask, "How can I help?".)

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

Follow-up

After posting the story about the kind clerk in the grocery store, I received this email from Judy and she gave me permission to share:

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Last week I read your Book Buddies update and your account of the "kindness" in the grocery store. I turn off the computer and head to the grocery store to do my weekly shopping. I was looking through a display stack of tortillas, checking the expiration dates on the packages.

I pulled one off the stack, and the entire display fell and packages of tortillas splattered at my feet. Honest! This really happened!

My first impulse was to run out of the store. Then I thought of you and the Buddy update. I bent down to pick up the packages of tortillas and restack the display. Before I could pick up even one package, a clerk was bending down next to me. "That's okay," he said. "This happens all the time. I'll pick them up. You go ahead and finish your shopping."

I pushed my cart up and down the remaining aisles with a huge silly grin on my face--thinking of you. :-)
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Thanks for sharing, Judy! Isn't it fun to notice the small kindnesses given to us each day? It gets me excited to find ways to make someone else's day.



Has someone blessed you with a gracious word, a kind gesture, a small gift? Post a comment about it between now and August 1st, and I'll draw a name to win a free Penny's Project notebook!



Sharon Hinck

Little Steps

Years ago, I lived in the Tidewater area of Virginia (where Stepping Into Sunlight, the novel, is set).

I was an exhausted grad student with a toddler and baby-on-the-way.

One day at the local grocery store, I was hurrying to grab a few things and get home in time to trade off the car with my hubby who would head off to one of his jobs (he was also in grad school). I reached for an orange, and several fell from the display, bouncing around my feet.

Embarrassed, I bent clumsily and tried to chase them down, fighting back tears because I was so exhausted, and the escaping oranges felt like the last straw.

"Ma'am, don't worry about it." A young stock-boy offered me grace with his friendly smile. "Happens all the time."

He waved me along and picked up after me. I never forgot that small act of kindness. He didn't know how tight my lungs had been feeling, how heavy my shoulders, how jangled my nerves. But he lifted my burden on a day I desperately needed it.

I realized that day that I underestimate the value of a small kind word, a simple act, a warm smile.

This site is all about celebrating ways to love others -- even strangers.

We'll be taking little steps, sharing the adventure, laughing over the attempts that fall flat, and watching to see what surprises God may have in store.

How about you? Has someone ever offered you a small act of kindness that touched your place of deep need? Post a comment here. Maybe some of us can duplicate the good deed!

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck
Coming Soon:
Stepping Into Sunlight