I sighed
loudly as I stared at the calendar for November and December. It is filled to the brim already with busy
nights and busier weekends.
I
pondered the parties, outings, and activities, and my mental to-do list began
churning: card sending, cookie baking,
tree hunting, present purchasing, the list goes on and on and on. Of course, I imagine completing each of these
activities with cheery Christmas music playing in the background, my two
adorable children dressed in Christmas finery, my husband making a fresh batch
of hot chocolate and stoking the wood fire, and then reality sinks in…. I will, more than likely, be rushing through
each of these tasks, trying to get them done in time, squeezed into an already
busy everyday life – possibly while slightly cranky, stressed and with a
Grinch-like attitude.
As I
stood there, mired in a strange mix of anticipation and dread for the looming
holiday season, I wondered where Jesus fit into the frantic pace laid out on my calendar before me. Hmmm…. I remember vowing last year that this year
would be different – that we would spend more time reflecting, more time giving
instead of receiving, more time being intentional about celebrating Christ’s
birth instead of being pushed and pulled through the season.….
And so I called a couple of girlfriends. We each sent a Facebook note to our friends. The response was overwhelming. And now I’m writing to you. Would you like to join us on an adventure to do something different, something bigger than ourselves, something that goes against our culture of consumption during the Christmas season? One of the best ways we can celebrate Christ’s birth is by intentionally thinking of others, every day. Our inspiration is found in Mark 12:28-31:
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
And so, we’ve hijacked the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) concept and are using it to celebrate Advent with our own version: Advent Acts of Kindness (AAK)! I admit it; I am still chuckling over the acronym. I’m sure I’ll be shouting AAK! at some point before this Christmas season is over!
Advent Acts of Kindness.
What it is:
We are spending the 24 days of Advent (December 1st through
Christmas Eve) doing one nice thing for someone else, every day. And, we
are adding one additional day – the Christmas Act of Kindness – as the Grand Finale
to this journey! We’re hoping you’ll
join us for the Grand Finale, it’s going to be fun, and we’re going to bless the
socks off some very special people! Stay
tuned…we’ll be talking about the Grand Finale in the weeks to come!
Please
join us, even if you don’t have the time to participate every day and even if
it is only for the Grand Finale. This is
not meant as “one more thing” for your Christmas to-do list. This is not pressure, guilt, or another big
project. Some ideas take planning, some
do not. Do what works best for you as
often as you want! And…, enjoy it. Revel in the joy of doing something unexpected
and nice for someone with no strings attached.
Slow down, savor the moment and enjoy the season of Advent as we
celebrate the birth of our Savior.
We would
LOVE to make this a community event. If
you’d like, take a picture of your project and post it on our comments below or
on our Facebook page. We want to see and hear what you are doing!
Free Printable! My awesome friend, Aimee, designed
this free postcard for you to download, print and use however you would like as
you are planning your AAK!
Ideas:
Kendra, Kristin and I have asked our friends, and scoured Pinterest,
blogs and the Google universe for ideas to inspire you! We found our ideas falling into several
general categories, so that is how we are going to organize them: Community,
Nation, and World.
Community
Neveah – I learned of this sweet
five-year-old from a friend. Neveah is battling cancer. She loves receiving cards, and she loves
being able to hand out toys to other kids at Children’s Hospital in
Minneapolis. If you want her contact
info, send us an email at theruthexperience@hotmail.com. For obvious reasons, we don’t want to publish
her info (or her last name) online.
Kids Against Hunger. This
organization has locations all around the Minnesota, including Sauk Rapids. If you and your family have never packed food
with KAH, you are missing out on an amazing experience!
United Way of Central MN. For those of you in central MN – our local
United Way has tons of super easy volunteer projects for children, adults and
families. You won’t regret giving them a
call; they are full of wonderful ideas!
Your local County Human Services
Department. I have a dear friend who told me
that Wright County Human Services knows families and foster kids in need. A call to your local county agency may put
you in touch with a family you could bless – big or small.
Catholic Charities Share the Spirit. Adopt
a prescreened family for Christmas. Gifts
need to be delivered to Catholic Charities by December 13th, so do
this one early!
I’m also
linking to several fun blogs with tons of great ideas for neighborhood and
community projects:
Light ‘em up! 2012.
A fantastic blog with 100 ideas for blessing someone else!
Mix Mingle Glow. This
woman did 38 random acts of kindness for her 38th birthday. She has great ideas that get kids out, active
and thinking of others.
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. Who knew there was a foundation for
kindness?! They have great ideas on
their website.
TSJ Photography.
This family went on a photo blogging adventure capturing their Random Acts of
Christmas Kindness – what a great way to make memories!
Katherine Marie’s. More awesome ideas specifically for
Christmas!
National
Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes. Click the link for detailed instructions on sending cards to our military
heroes. Cards must arrive no later than
December 7th – so do this one early!
Angel Tree.
This Christian organization focuses on getting gifts to children whose parent(s)
are incarcerated. The gift arrives in
their incarcerated parent’s name.
Toys for Tots. Buy a gift, drop it off at a pick up site.
The Marines will take it from there.
World
Post Pals. This is an amazing charity in England in
which people send cards/emails/notes to critically ill children, their siblings
and their families. Don’t you think a
child would think it is AWESOME to get a letter from “across the pond”?
World Vision. I can’t think of a better Christmas present
than sponsoring a child.
Help One Now. This is a smaller child sponsorship
organization focused on Haiti. They are
currently building schools because the way out of poverty is through
education. Kendra has a sponsorship through
this organization and loves it.
Heifer International. Help a family climb out of poverty through
the gift of chickens, sheep, goats or a cow.
This is truly the gift that keeps on giving!
International Justice Mission. Did you
know Minnesota is one of the worst states for sex trafficking? Yep.
Makes me want to puke. This
Christian organization fearlessly goes into the darkest corners of the earth in
order to pull women (and men) out of slavery.
Here is their Christmas catalog, you can make a donation on behalf of
someone else.
//www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/gift_catalog/
ReplyDeleteSamaritan's purse also has a catalog for giving gifts to the needy. And Compassion Intl.
Yes - both fantastic organizations! Thank you, Brenda!
DeleteI'm in. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my blog up linking to this project. It's genius!! Thank you for sharing. AND, I'll get back to you about what I do.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Looking forward to seeing what you've decided to do! :)
DeleteLove this!! Can't wait!
ReplyDelete