Random Acts of Kindness
Christmas is the time when many acts of kindness are distributed throughout the world. It’s a magical time of year.
Since we are entering a new year, why not spend it looking for ways to give little gifts all year long? Sounds great, but how do we do this?
Here’s one idea we came up with. When we find ourselves in a drive-through we ask the cashier if we can pay for someone’s order that is two cars behind us. They usually have their order on computer by then and that way we have a car between us so we can perform our “getaway” before they know who we are.
When my grandsons came for the holidays we decided each one would have a one-on-one with grammy and we would look for a way to give a gift without the receiver knowing who we were.
Our first day out Connor (age 13) and I delivered a trunkload of food collected at a recent family party to our local Salvation Army just two days before Christmas. We drove away remembering the happy faces as they unloaded box after box. Although we were known, it blessed us to see the workers inside the building smiling as the boxes and cans kept coming in.
Second day out Calvin our youngest at (age 8) and I went to Wal-Mart to wire money to a family friend who had no Christmas gifts for their children. As I was about to tell the cashier an amount, Calvin said, “Grammy, give more.” I looked at him and upped the amount! A child knows things we don’t!
Third day out our eldest (age 15) knew what he was looking for: to buy lunch for someone since we were eating out. He looked around the restaurant and did not see an opportunity, so decided we should get in the car and go our local McDonald’s drive-through and buy someone’s order behind us. We pulled in but the drive-through was empty. So we parked and when we saw cars coming in, quickly maneuvered into the drive-through. Sure enough there were two cars behind us. We pulled up to the window and told the cashier we wanted to pay for the second car back. The cashier rang it up and alas the lady had bought only a Coke. We were a little disappointed at first, for this was Christmas, we were looking for GREAT gifts. Then we realized maybe this WAS the greatest gift to this lady…one simple act of kindness. The fun part was we gunned the gas pedal and got out of there before she could see us!
Fourth day out Cameron (age 11) chose McDonalds as his favorite place to eat. So we went inside looking for a way to use his random act of kindness. Since he didn’t see an opportunity we decided to head downtown for some candy at Veni’s our local chocolate shop. We bought turtles for Cameron’s mom and his favorite chocolate-covered marshmallow with pecans.
Then got an idea. We purchased a gift certificate from the cashier and gave it back to her with this request: “Give it to the next person who walks in the door!” Excitedly she said, “What? You’re giving this away to a stranger?”
We smiled and said we were. She got a bit teary-eyed and said, “As long as I’ve worked here this has never happened before.” We hurried out before someone could catch us, Cameron and I smiling because the cashier was bubbling over with excitement as to who it would be. Two people were touched this time.
A few days later after all the boys had flown home with their parents, I went into Veni’s again and the same cashier was there. She told me excitedly that the next person to come in that day was from out of town. The receiver asked to give the gift certificate to a family member.
Then the cashier said the most amazing thing. “You know what else? A lady came in here the other day and said someone had paid for her order at McDonalds.”
I just looked at her. The cashier knew our other grandson’s story about the drive-though Coke.
We looked at each other. There is no way of knowing who did this random act of kindness, but it sure made us feel all goose-bumpy, just thinking about it.
This was the gift that just kept giving.
Amazingly strange stories can come from just one act of kindness.
It was a wonderful week! Our “acts” cost us very little, but the excitement was overpowering as each gift began to include more and more people along the way.
I don’t think the boys nor I will soon forget. If they begin to perform acts of random kindness in their city just think how each gift will ripple outward.
Once people know how to give they, too, can find ways to change one person’s day, to let someone know there is still love and kindness in a world that is full of trouble.
Why don’t you try it one day and see what happens?
We would love to hear your story. If you want to share, just hit reply, or visit https://www.facebook.com/patricia.strefling.author and let me know.
January 17, 2012
© by Patricia Strefling
