guest post - Laura - kindness and a giveaway

I'm excited for you to meet Laura.
I stumbled across her blog and haven't stop reading.
She was the one who helped inspired this whole
Random Acts of Kindness thing (along with my friend Julie).
She has a 90 days of kindness challenge going on right now,
which she'll tell you more about.
Welcome Laura...
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Hello! I'm Laura from along for the ride. I'm so excited to be joining you for Random Acts of Kindness Week! I've been thinking a lot about kindness lately...and I've come to the conclusion that it's kind of hard. There are a lot of things I do not know about kindness, like why it's easier to be mean than to be nice, to be rude than have manners, to be impatient than to show empathy, or to judge instead of have compassion. But I do know one thing...God thinks kindness is a pretty big deal.

I am currently hosting the 90 days of kindness challenge on my blog which is modeled after a challenge my pastor gave our church. He believes that kindness is the most radical way you can profess your faith, and I really believe that. Here's a bit of what I wrote in a recent post:

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul states that without love, our words are empty and meaningless. Love seems like such an easy piece of the puzzle, but without it, we lack so much.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Nothing? Nothing? What a strong word. Nothing.

I have read this verse time and time again and really have not let it all sink in. Without love, I am nothing. Without love, I give nothing. Without love, I gain nothing.

Maybe kindness is pretty radical after all.

There are things I will never understand, like how it's easier to be impatient with my husband than to show him respect or why it's so difficult to put my selfishness aside for the needs of others, but I believe that God is showing me, calling me, toward kindness.

It's easy to get caught up in the things we aren't doing or the ways in which we fail, but don't. God's mercy brings us out of that. Instead, focus on ways you can show kindness to the people in your life (loved ones and strangers alike) and the things you can do to share the love that we have been given.

I wanted to share something with you as my random act of kindness! I love making jewelry and I made a special charm bracelet for Jamie's blog!

Here's Laura's amazing giveaway!!!
Laura made this beautiful charm bracelet just for one of you!!

Seriously how cool is that?
A very generous and thoughtful gift!

To enter this giveaway which ends on July 22nd....
Leave a comment sharing whom you will practice extra kindness on!
(mandatory entry)

Extra entries:
1)Follow Pure Joy (1 entry) through google friend connect.
2) Follow Along for the Ride (1 entry) through google friend connect.
2)Go to Along for the Ride and leave a comment, THEN
come back here and tell me where you left a comment. (1 entry)
3) Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link to your post (1 entry)
4) Put the Random Acts of Kindness Button on your blog
and let me know where it is (2 entry)

Please leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry.
Please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!

Spread kindness everyday!