Many Pennys - Free Book

I've had such fun in the past few months hearing from readers of Stepping Into Sunlight.

Folks with some painful challenges are reaching out to show love to others. Serving others from their place of brokenness. Moving toward hope and healing.

The character of Penny Sullivan is being joined by many other "Pennys."

Please feel free to keep sharing your ideas for small acts of love here at this blog: little steps of kindness, creative ways to reach out, experiences you've had with Penny's Project.

Leave a comment during January at THIS POST about your experiences, and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Stepping Into Sunlight to give to a friend!

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

Keep Noticing

I want to take a moment to thank all the brave and kind souls who joined Penny's Project this month and set about doing some small steps of kindness.

Some participated once a week, others set a goal to do something new each day.

I've discovered that in the process of looking for ways to share a kindness, I've been noticing people more--watching for possible needs, paying attention to the kindnesses given to me.

I'll be hitting the road soon for a lengthy booktour, but if you drop by while I'm gone, feel free to read the past posts and the comments from other creative folks who've contributed great ideas to Penny's Project.

And if you still need more ideas, grab a copy of Stepping Into Sunlight (the novel that inspired Penny's Project).

Let's all keep noticing others and offering them the "widow's mite" - the penny's worth of love that seems so tiny, but can be so profound when God multiplies it.

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

Day 23 - Matchmaking

Years ago, two friends and I dressed in peasant garb and sang Fiddler on the Roof songs for a show. I still love the song, "Matchmaker."

And I love to make matches.

At a recent conference I met many new people, and if I learned something about the new friend that fit with someone else I already knew, I tried to help them find each other.

There's a wonderful joy in creating webs of relationships.

In "Stepping Into Sunlight," Penny helps weave some interconnections between her child's school, the store-front mission in the neighborhood, and the members of her support group.

Think about the people you know.

Is there a single mom who would love to be introduced to a great car mechanic who will give her a fair price for an oil change? Is there a harried mom needing that reliable teen that you know who could babysit? Is there a friend who loves to quilt who would love to connect with the sewing circle at your church?

See if you can find a match to make for your step of kindness today!

His,
Sharon Hinck

Day 22 -A Small Gift

I recently attended a major writer's conference. I had a full schedule of teaching and meetings, and was getting over some health issues and was battling exhaustion.

One morning, a friend found me and gave me a little tin of mints - personalized with my name on it. It was such a special pick-me-up - especially because when she was in the store that carried these, she had to twirl that rack of mints and look for my name to find this. I felt so REMEMBERED and thought of and loved.

Later, a friend gave me her hotel room key (I was staying off-site) and said, "Go up and take a nap if you need a break. Use my room." I can't express what a treasure that was to me.

Then at a banquet, another friend gave me a card and a box of luxurious mints. Her words sang to me, and of course chocolate is ALWAYS a brilliant way to make someone feel loved.

I'm planning to look for a way to give a thoughtful small gift today. Will you try that with me? I don't think my friends had any idea what their gifts meant to me and how they kept me going when I was weary. We may never know how our gifts lift the heart of a friend. But let's do it and trust it might just be the blessing they need.

His,
Sharon Hinck

Day 12 - Common Courtesies

Courtesy isn't so "common" these days - but, wow, can it make a difference.

Yesterday a visitor to the blog shared a beautiful story in her comment about how strangers reached out in little ways and made a difference during a challenging day.

Today, let's all look for an opportunity to hold a door for someone, let someone else get in the elevator first, or offer to hold a crying baby so the mom can dig through her bag for a binky. Let's step back and gesture to someone that they can go ahead of us in line at the bank or grocery store.

Even if you spend most of the day at home, see if you can find a way to offer extra courtesy to others in your family. Then please share your ideas!

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

Day 10 - Get Your Hands Dirty

In my pre-September warm-up posts, I shared about my daughter picking up litter in a movie theatre parking lot, and the story of the nun at a retreat who wiped up the bathroom to leave it nicer than the way she found it.

I think that perhaps because of being a homemaker for so many years, and the inevitable extra "clean up after others" work that goes along with that, it's easy for me to tune out when I hear that gentle nudge. After all, I have spent years picking up for others.

But no matter how many of our daily chores revolve around leaving a space better than how we found it, we can still reach out and do a little something extra. Will it be noticed? Perhaps not! But that's part of the fun.

Go for a walk today and pick up some litter. Or tidy the breakroom at work (when no one is around to notice who did it). Or vacuum your spouses car and shake out the floor mats.

Or share some other ideas you have!

Blessings!
Sharon

Day 9 - Speak a Blessing

When my children were young, I'd stand in the doorway and rest my hand on their head before they left for the school bus and pronounce a blessing. Not quite the same as a prayer - a blessing if a bit more of declaration. "May your day be filled with reminders of how much God loves you." "May you find ways to bring light to your friends today." "May He send His angels to protect you and guard your steps."

Often, I based those blessings on whatever scripture I'd read in my morning quiet time.

Recently, several friends spoke blessings over me.

One said in an email, "I just know that God isn't done with the issue that is on your heart. Don't give up. His answer is on the way." Part prayer for the situation, part declaration of hope, her words helped me.

Another said in a phone conversation, "It's been a season of loss and difficulty, but I believe a season of God's abundance is coming for you. Be strong and tenaciously cling to the truth that He will fulfill His purposes."

While this is a kindness that might be more appropriate for family and friends, I've also looked for ways to speak a blessing to others I encounter. To a lab technician at the medical clinic, I've said, "You are so good at making people feel at ease. I know you're going to be a comfort to many people in your work and make a lot of difference to others."

How about you? Anyone you could speak a blessing over today?

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face shine on you today!

His, Sharon

Day 8 - Slow Down

A few days ago, I was making bookstore visits, stopping in to let the store staff know about my upcoming release, Stepping Into Sunlight.

Store visits can feel a little like sales cold-calls. Not exactly the favorite activity for my an author with my personality type. Thankfully, I was treated warmly each place I stopped.

But a few of the staff that I met really listened when I told them about the book. Their eyes didn't follow each person strolling by. They didn't glance at their watch after ten seconds. They smiled, they nodded . . . they took a moment to slow down and give the gift of attention. It meant the world to me.

I've always been bad at giving that gift. When my kids were young, I had to clamp my mouth shut as they told long, out-of-breath, rambling stories. I was SO tempted to hurry them along, get them to the point. But the POINT was that they needed to be heard. They needed me to slow down, hit the pause button of my busy life, and listen.

Today when you feel like rushing past someone, stop instead. When you find yourself "uh-huhing" faster and faster, hoping to get them to wrap up their thoughts, try slowing down and really listening. When someone in your family interrupts you in the middle of something, offer them your full attention - generously.

Let's give someone the kindness of slowing down. Of hearing. Of acknowledging that they are delightful and we want to spend a little time with them.

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

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

Day 1 - Kindness in An Email

I'll try to post an idea each day in September - our Penny's Project month.

If I don't keep up with a new one each day, I hope these will be supplemented by great ideas by all of you!!!

Please comment about small acts of kindness that you have done, or plan to do, or that have been gifted to you.

Day one, we're starting with something VERY easy. Not costly, not scary or difficult, no sacrifice required.

Send an email to someone whom God brings to mind.

Sounds like a tiny, not-highly-meaningful act. BUT there have been days that a loving, genuine, personal, encouraging note from a friend in my email box TOTALLY helped me through a dark day.

I'm NOT referring to jokes and cartoons and group emails that are forwarded around and clutter our boxes. I'm also not counting a friendly affirmation included along with a request. I mean a pure, personal, encouraging and kind note for no other purpose than to let someone know you care about them.

Lord,
guide us to a name...then guide our words.
Help us pour out our love, support, and tender regard,
and hit "send" with a prayer on our lips for you to bless the friend who will receive our message. Amen.

Let me know how it goes!
And continue to invite your friends to visit this site and join us in Penny's Project - sharing a small step of kindness with a new person each day!

His,
Sharon

Servanthood

Coming out of a movie theater after a family outing, my youngest daughter picked up something from the ground. I looked over, thinking she'd dropped something.

"What's that?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Something for me to throw away later."

Litter? She was picking up litter in a big old public parking lot?

When we got home, I sidled close to her and said, "Hey, thanks for doing that. But what made you think of it?"

She explained that on her recent mission trip, where she worked to clean and paint a community center, they discussed the issue of being a servant. It was easy during the parameters of the mission trip to think about giving their labor to others each day, but could be easy to forget about once they got home. My daughter didn't want to revert to the way most of us function - avoiding the dirty jobs. She wanted to bring the attitude of humble service into every day.

Cool, isn't it?

And other than this time when I caught her at it, it's the sort of quiet service that no one will ever see or praise or reward.

I once spent a week at a retreat center, and a nun who was also on the retreat wiped down the public restroom's sink and counter after getting ready in the morning. I never would have thought of doing that...leaving the space nicer than it was for the stranger who would use it next.

Can you think of other "invisible" acts of servanthood?

Remember, everyone who posts comments before August 1st will be entered in a drawing for a Penny's Project Notebook (to keep track of your small steps of kindness)

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

Praising Someone - Behind Their Back

We all know the horrible feeling of finding out someone has said something mean about us behind our back.

But there is an equally powerful joy in learning someone shared a kind report about us to others.

I just returned from the International Christian Retail Show - an exhausting experience. One day, I got a call. A store manager had stopped by my publisher's booth and raved about my books. They told him I was at the conference, and called me to arrange for me to meet him. I was so encouraged by his enthusiasm. But it also felt amazing to think of someone "talking behind my back" in such a terrific way. He made me look good to my publishers.

In Stepping Into Sunlight, Penny tells a store manager about a clerk that has done a terrific job. The manager and clerk are both startled, but it makes the clerk's day, and raises her in the eyes of her rather cranky manager.

It's so much easier to whine and complain about people. I confess I slip into it far too often. But I've been concentrating on finding opportunities to genuinely talk up someone I like or admire behind his or her back. They may never find out, but it does raise their esteem. And if they do hear about it, it just might make their day.

Can you think of someone you could speak well of behind their back?
We've discussed the power of a kind word, but let's try the power of a covert kind word and see what happens. :-)

Feel free to share your stories here.
Everyone who comments will be entered in a drawing for a free Penny's Project Notebook.

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:

---
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. :-)
---
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

One Little Kind Word

I truly spend most of my life floundering around convinced I'm not of much use to God's kingdom and wishing I could do something more to lift the load of my friends who are hurting, or to honor His name, or to meet the needs I see in the world.

Every now and again, God gives me a glimpse of a way He HAS used me when I wasn't looking.

Months ago I hosted a small gathering at my home. One of the women had shared about some discouragement, and as she left that evening, I casually said, "If you ever want to talk, feel free to call."

Simple words. Tossed out almost without thought. Certainly no great act of sacrifice or love. This was a sweet woman to whom it was easy to reach out.

But she later wrote to me and shared that the simple invitation was an answer to a long battle she had fought with feeling insignificant. She had been praying that God would do something to reassure her that she was lovable, that she was important to Him. Standing on my front porch, she felt His answer.

Wow.

I've been on the receiving end of those sorts of timely, kind words, as well.

Last winter, I was facing a scary heart catheterization procedure. The morning before heading to the hospital, I opened my emails and found one from a woman I'd met briefly several months earlier (who knew nothing about my health struggles). "I don't know why," she wrote. "and this might sound weird. But for some reason God has really impressed on me that I should pray for you. So I wanted to let you know I'm praying."

I put my head on my desk and burst into tears. Joyful tears. Without me even asking, He was nudging people to support me in prayer.

How about you? Have you ever received the gift of a kind word at a crucial time?
Or have you said something and later learned it was exactly what the other person needed?

Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."

Let's find some ways to share golden apples today!

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck

Past Projects

Since childhood, I've enjoyed designing special projects like the character of Penny Sullivan did in Stepping Into Sunlight.

One year during Lent, I tried to do a secret good deed each day (it's harder than it sounds!). Another time, I set out to send a letter of gratitude to a different person each day during November (in honor of Thanksgiving).

As a wife and mom of four, I'm blessed with folks to whom it's easy to show love. But I still like the idea of challenging myself to reach out to new people in creative ways.

My local Christian radio station, KTIS, has been promoting something called "Drive Thru Difference" - where listeners are encouraged to pay for the person behind them at the drive-through as a surprise gift.

Have you ever participated in a special project like one of these in the past? What did you do? How was it received? Feel free to share ideas in the comments. And to join our Small Steps of Kindness Movement - leave a comment HERE, and I'll get you added to our list. During the month of September, we'll rock our world with small acts of love that God can multiply.

Blessings!

Sharon Hinck

Small Steps of Kindness

In the novel Stepping Into Sunlight, the character Penny Sullivan creates a plan in a little yellow notebook. She calls it "Penny's Project" and uses it to brainstorm ideas and also record small successes along the way.

As she struggles to heal from post-traumatic stress, she turns her gaze outward as much as she is able - and sets out to do a small act of kindness for a different person each day.

Some of her steps of kindness are spontaneous. When she's in a pet store and the clerk reaches out to her son, she makes a point to tell the manager how terrific the clerk was.

Others good deeds take planning - like collecting a small item for a member of her victim support group.

Some are common and familiar acts. She sends a card and note to a friend, or phones a family member to connect with them.

Others are new ventures - helping a neighbor put up a wallpaper border, or handing a Farecard to a stranger at a bus stop.

Let's begin sharing! Post kind acts you've offered, or ideas you plan to try HERE!

I'll compile comments from time to time and create a post of ideas on various themes.

Share Ideas Here

Please post your creative ideas in the comment section any time -
little acts of love, small steps of kindness, spontaneous deeds that bring joy to someone else.

From time to time I'll organize and compile ideas around themes and use them in posts.

Blessings!
Sharon Hinck