random acts of kindness - the post and a giveaway

When my husband attended seminary in St. Louis I knew I needed to find a job. I wasn't sure that any church would hire me as their youth directory since I would only be around for two years. But Peace Lutheran in south county took me in and hired me to take care of their youth. I had many responsibilities. Some I was ready for and many I was not. I was ready to have fun. I was ready with some fun ideas and great resources. I was NOT ready for the love of the youth, the support from the church and the great friendships that I formed in those two short years.

I kinda figured it would be a "here do this, it's what we've always done" kinda thing (and it was at some points). I figured they'd forget about me when my two years were over and move on with their lives. And yes, they've moved on with their lives but I don't think they forgot about me...well, not everyone anyway. Thanks to the invention of facebook I've been able to keep in touch with many of the "kids" that I worked with and still have two very good friends that are not of the "youth" category!

One thing that I loved that was a "here do this, it's what we've always done" thing was their Random Acts of Kindness. They had these little business cards printed out with information about the church on one side and a message of Christ's love on the other side. They had a list of things to accomplish and people to be kind to. We tried to do this more often than we were really able to do, but I also tried to impress on the kids that random acts of kindness do not need to be something that the "youth group" plans and does as an activity. It should be a lifestyle, a way of life, who they are.

We did things like, hold doors at stores, pump gas for people, we bought flowers and passed them out to people, and my memory escapes me but I know there were more things on the list. It was fun to see people's reactions. It was also kinda sad when people passed on our kindness because they were scared of what we wanted in return or what was really behind our kindness. It's sad that someone being kind is sometimes looked on as a threat, or just trying to get something back.

Well, people have shown random acts of kindness to us and we are so grateful. I'm trying to teach that same kindness and giving attitude to my children. It starts (for them) at home and learning to share with their sibling. Learning to be nice, kind, let others go first, etc. We also have some kindness activities planned for this week that will take us out of our home and into the lives of strangers! I'll make sure to report back on that later.

So, I wanted to take the Random Acts of Kindness to another level. I've asked some of my favorite bloggers to contribute their story. Some will be sharing how random acts of kindness have impacted their lives, others will share some random acts of kindness that they've done for other people and still others will share more ideas and ways that we can share kindness with strangers and family alike.

I encourage you to come back every day this week for lots of great posts by lots of great women! We've also got some great giveaways planned, just another way to spread the kindness. Why don't we get started right now with the giveaways!

Giveaways will be open for one week from the day they were posted.
To enter the giveaways you must leave a comment on the post containing the giveaway.
To earn extra entries there will be a list of things you can do to earn them!

So, today, we have some adorable BOWS
for that sweet little girl in your life,
and a key fob for mom!
These bows and key fob were created and kindly donated by my friend Amy.

To enter this giveaway which ends on July 11th....
Leave a comment telling me why you want to win these and
who would be getting them.

Extra entries:
1)Follow Pure Joy (1 entry) through google friend connect.
2)Go to Amy's blog 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 (1 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!