The Kindness Challenge: 7 Small Acts With Big Impacts
So, I don’t know about you, but over the past several weeks, I have felt like my Spiritual relationship is in a rut, and not growing. But I had the realization a few days ago, that it was my own doing. I had stopped setting my normal amount of Spiritual goals for myself after my family’s week got busy. I figured that I can’t be the only one in this boat, so, I want to start something new with you all! Something that we can work on together each week to get better about cultivating our Faith outside of the Church building! What better way to do that, than giving us some ideas each week to challenge ourselves towards? I plan to update the challenge ideas and I will also be actively doing the challenges with you! It will be a shared journey that we are both on at the same time. If this journey sounds like one you want to join me on, then I want you to do a couple things for me, so we can connect as we work on them together.
Go like our Facebook Ministry page: HERE! This is so you can follow along during the week because I will be posting reminders of our challenges, and I want to hear from you! I want to celebrate the big and small victories with you!
Share this article, and future ones on Facebook, so we can get as many other ladies (and their families) joining us on this challenge! Let’s help cultivate our growth with Christ outside of the Church building together!!
This week our first challenge is: The Kindness Challenge! I will be giving 7 ideas for this challenge that I want to try and challenge myself and challenge you to this week! You can either challenge yourself to one of the goals, or all of them. Or you can even make up your own goal that goes with the weeks theme!! There is no better challenge to start with than kindness! Our world doesn’t always feel very kind right now, and I want to add a BIG burst of kindness into the world this week! The more ladies (and their families) that we get joining in on this challenge, the more kindness that will be put into the world for Christ this week! Let’s start a BIG wave this week, that will hopefully spread into others lives this week! Every week we will start a new week of challenges on Thursdays, so be on the lookout each Thursday for the new challenges of the week. Love you all! Let’s go out there, and show the most kindness that we can!
Bible Verse: Ephesians 4:32 - “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Words of Appreciation
Sincerity! Being genuine is the key to this point. Imagine giving a lesson for a group of ladies at a monthly Bible study. After you are done imagine someone saying “thank you for the lesson.” Yes, it made you smile, but it really won’t stick in your memory long term. But imagine someone coming up to you and saying, “thank you for your lesson, it changed my view on that scripture and I plan on working on that this week!” Now, that would have made all your effort feel seen and heard. That is the kind of appreciation shown that will stick with you for years to come. Yes, I am sure the first lady that I mentioned thought the same thing about your lesson when she said thank you, but she didn’t express it! This week, challenge yourself to show kindness by expressing your thoughts to people when you appreciate something about what they have done. Go out of your way to do so. You might feel awkward doing this, but think of how great you would feel if everyone did the same back to you! Sometimes showing kindness means we have to leave our comfort zones to do so. So this week go out of your way either in text, card, or in words to let someone know a genuine thing that you appreciate about them, and let them know WHY you appreciate it. The most sincere appreciation tell the other person WHY you appreciate it!
Smile and Greet
I’m sure at one point or another, you have come across someone who just smiles and says “hi” to everyone. The seem to glow differently than everyone else, and they just make you want to talk to them because of it. They just feel welcoming and happy! But let me tell you a little secret, you don’t have to naturally be like that, to harness this skill. It’s a skill that you work on. It starts simple with just making yourself smile more, a constant reminder to yourself to “make” your face look happy. How much would it affect a conversation that you were having, if the other person just looked happy? You would feel more comfortable, and want to talk more. Showing happiness and feeling it go hand in hand, when you start smiling more, you will feel like smiling more. Your challenge this week in show kindness is to smile more and greet people. Maybe go out of your way while at the Church building to greet or talk to people that you don’t normally talk to. Smile at others more, and just remind yourself to look happy! That will overflow from your face into your heart! Just try it, and you will feel the difference!
Random Compliments
What is the most normal conversation that you hear when you come to church? “Hi, how are you,” “Good, you,” “I’m good too.” That’s it, that is the average depth a conversation gets while in the Church building (side not I said average, I know this is not the case every time). Do those kinds of conversations make you feel very special? What if someone came up to you and said, “WOW, you look fabulous today. Green is such a good color on you!” Wouldn’t that make your entire week? This week your challenge to show kindness is to give more genuine compliments. Not just ones of appreciation (like the first challenge this week), but ones of something you like about a person. Do this while at the Church building, the store, or at work. The goal with this is to show kindness through compliments.
Donate Your Time
Time, is the most valuable thing on this earth (other than our Salvation which is priceless!!!). Each day, we have our schedules so packed, that even finding 30 extra minutes for something is rare. This is how our whole lives are. So filled that we don’t have time for extras. And time is not guaranteed, since we know that God can return at any minute. But how would you feel, if you needed help with a task, and it keeps getting put off? Now imagine if someone who you know is usually busy stops and helps you with that task. Wouldn’t that feel life changing to you? This week your challenge for showing kindness is to donate a small portion of your time for someone else. This can be towards helping your spouse with something (beyond what you normally do), or even helping with a Church activity or task (beyond what you normally do). The goal of this is to give up a small amount of time to go towards doing something to show kindness! With this challenge go beyond what you normally do, this is donating more time to someone than we already do. Showing kindness by going beyond the normal amount. Get creative with this one!
Pay it Forward
Have you ever seen or been part of one of the “pay it forward” lines in a drive thru. We found ourself in one of those lines on Saturday morning, while out for coffee after a sleepless night with our oldest son who was a few months old at the time. It brought tears to my eyes, and made that coffee feel even more special! One small act of kindness has this huge ripple affect and go towards the next person, and so on and so on. Paying it forward doesn't have to always mean “paying” for something, although it can. It can be paying it forward through a task, picking up trash, offering to help someone, or buying your coworker their favorite candy. Your challenge this week in Kindness is to “pay it forward” in some way, shape, or form. You choose how and when you do so. Be thinking of ways and looking for opportunities!
Handwritten Notes
In the digital age, hand written notes, letters, or cards are getting harder and harder to come by. What would you rather get from a loved one, a message or a written letter? Hand written letters will always be looked at through this dreamy and thoughtful lens because they take time and thought to do. While, a message can be quickly sent, and then unsent if you change your mind. But a letter can be kept for years in a special box. A post it note, could be pinned to a wall for inspiring during a hard moment. I know because I keep all of the notes, card, and post-it notes that I have been given, they are all special and I go through them occasionally and reread them. This week your challenge is to share kindness through a handwritten note, card, or letter. You get to choose who it goes to. Maybe to a hard worker in the Church who tirelessly washes the dishes after each Church event. Or maybe even to someone who you want to get to know better in the Church. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just a short hand written note to encourage someone in your life.
Practice Patience and Grace
Out of all of the kindest things that I can think of, this is one of the most important: showing patience and Grace. We are all human and make plenty of mistakes. When we give someone who messes up Grace, we are showing them kindness. When we are patient with someone, we are showing kindness. Being able to share patience and Grace with someone is the most kind thing that we can ever give them! Choosing to put aside any emotions that we feel and giving them more opportunities. So your last challenge this week in Kindness, is to show patience and Grace. God showed us patience and Grace every single time we have messed up, so we need to do so to others. As you go about your week, remind yourself to intentionally choose patience and Grace!
About the Author: My name is Katie, and I’m a Church of Christ Preacher’s wife in Kentucky. I am also a proud homeschool mom to two brilliant boys. I love to craft, and make and bind my own notebooks. I also make a weekly podcast show called “Just Bible No Fluff",” where I skip all of fluffy extras and hop right into a short yet impactful exegetical study of the scripture. My mission and vision in life is this: “To empower women Spiritually by enhancing their skills in deep Bible study, equipping them to effectively teach the Gospel to others, and guiding them in cultivating Spiritual growth beyond the Church building.”