Today my husband and I are celebrating our 17th Anniversary! When I woke up this morning, he left me a message on our bathroom mirror out of soap. It was so sweet of him! When I was waking up in bed I heard this odd distant noise like someone was hammering or something. Come to find out, it was my husband writing on the mirror with a bar of soap for me. Now wasn't that nice of him! I love this man! It's been a great 17 years together and I'm thankful that God hand picked you for me.
On to our prayer from yesterday and the prayer for today...
Day 14 - Kindness ~ I Thessalonians 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
Treating others how we want to be treated is what I'm always telling our girls. We need to keep in mind that our children mirror us and they learn from us how to be kind. When your child sees you going the extra mile to help a friend, carrying someone's groceries, making a meal for a new family that just moved in, or inviting people into your life who aren't exactly like you, they will naturally see this as the right way to live. Kids are naturally empathetic from an early age: As newborns, they cry when they hear another baby crying; they offer their favorite doll to the friend who has scraped his knee.
Try these Random Acts of Kindness and ask your kids to come up with their own list of everyday opportunities to show kindness. Some ideas to get them started:
-Smile at the bus driver.
-Compliment at least one person a day.
-Hold the door for the person behind you when you come in from recess.
-Pass on to someone else a book you loved.
-Offer to walk a neighbor's dog.
-Help someone find something he or she has lost.
-Recycle magazines to the local library.
-Help a younger sibling with homework.
-Sit with the kid who usually sits alone on the bus.
-If kids are speaking unkindly about someone, take a stand against it.
-Bake an extra batch of cookies and leave them on a neighbor's doorstep.
-Hug somebody who needs it.
Remind your children they can make a difference each day. They can touch other people's lives through simple efforts: a smile, a nod, a shared laugh, a kind word, a whispered prayer.
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Day 15 - Generosity ~ I Timothy 6:18-19 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Here are some ways I found that we can use to teach our children to give generously:
- Help your children to appreciate the thoughtfulness of the smallest gift received and to express gratefulness to the giver.
- Teach your children that every gift they offer is an expression of Christ’s love.
- Help your children to memorize “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” (Acts 20:35), and “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” ( 2 Corinthians 9:7)
- Teach your children at an early age to give a tenth of the money they receive and earn, to the Church.
- Teach your children to work diligently.
- Teach your children the importance of a balanced stewardship: it is important to pay bills, living within our means; it is important to save money and to invest it wisely; but it is equally important to give generously.
- Help your children offer gifts at the holidays rather than merely receiving gifts.
- Give your children opportunities to give time, labor, written expressions of love, and investment of relational time.
- Describe often the self-sacrificial giving of Jesus calling your children to follow in his love.
- Emphasize the privilege of giving rather than the obligation of giving.
Our prayer today may sound something like one of the following prayers: "Grant that my children may be generous and willing to share, and so lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age." or "Loving God, instill in my children a desire to give of themselves. May they always be honorable in action, sincere in words, and gentle in their treatment of others."
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