Acts 20:35
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’"
This Three Kings Day we spent the day spreading JOY to people in our community.
We made homemade marshmallows for one of the owners of the dance studio where my children dance. He loves marshmallows and it brought him lots of JOY to receive them.
We also took three of Anne's porcelain dolls that she no longer wanted and left them on playground benches in low-income neighborhoods. We left them with notes that said to take them home and love them. My kids love doing this particular act of kindness. They love to go back the next day and see that the toys are gone and think about the new child playing with them. We hope that each doll will bring some child great JOY!
Lastly, we made nine homeless kits. We dropped them off at our church to be handed out to homeless people on Sunday. Our church is in charge of serving breakfast in an urban park this weekend. In our city, homeless people often stand at traffic lights to beg. We plan to make some more to keep in the car to give to homeless people at traffic lights.
If you want to make your own, here is a list with ideas of what you might include:
- Non-perishable food, such as crackers, hard candy, cookies, etc.
- Tissues
- Comb or hairbrush
- Hand wipes
- Gum
- Socks
- Gloves and hats
- Band-aids
- Fast food gift cards
- Toothpaste and toothbrush
- Most important ~ a card of encouragement and compassion
We had a wonderful day spreading JOY! I am joining ~
Blessings, Dawn
I love reading about all of your acts of charity and kindness. You have such great ideas.
ReplyDeleteWhat a kind thing for Anne to do as well. I hope the dolls found a lovely new home with a girl who will adore them.
What great practical ideas for spreading joy that you shared! My kids made homeless kits with the youth group at our last church. I remember handing one out when we were moving and traveling from Arizona to Colorado.
ReplyDeleteWow! I love your heart and how you embraced sharing the gift of generosity with your children to give in this manner. I would love to make some of the kits you shared. With my health situation and our forced move, we now live near an area where we see homeless daily. It's a daily struggle of my heart and has really changed in how I look at our abundance -- or should I say OVER abundance. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the idea of leaving the dolls so much. What an amazing way to celebrate the day. I love everything about this Dawn!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this! I really love the idea of sharing the dolls, and not knowing who the recipient is. :)
ReplyDeleteI just moved to a new area and noticed there are a lot of homeless people living on the streets. Alyssa and I were just talking about prepping a few kits. This post gave me a few new suggestions as to what to include in our bags. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great example you set for your kids! I think being generous is one of the best things you can teach your kids to be. Alas, if only I was a little better at it.
ReplyDeleteThis is so lovely! You are teaching the children a type of generosity which will last their entire life. I really enjoyed reading this :)
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