March Kindness Challenge

We are challenging the church to participate in two specific acts of kindness each week.

• The first act of kindness will be a corporate challenge to the whole church.
• The second allows you to choose from a list of 81 various acts of kindness.

Finally, we want to hear your stories!  Tell us your interactions with people in the community.  You may tell us your story below or comment on our facebook page!

Week 1 – March 1-8, 2015

• Corporate Challenge – Pay it forward. Buy a strangers meal at a restaurant or their coffee at a coffee shop. Then leave them with a kindness card.
• Personal Challenge – Pick an act of kindness from the list below.

After doing your act of kindness, give them a kindness card. We will be handing out kindness cards at Cross Points each Sunday. These kindness cards will have something encouraging on them.

List of 81 Random Acts of Kindness:

1. Tweet or Facebook message a genuine compliment to three people right now.
2. Bring doughnuts (or a healthy treat, like cut-up fruit) to work.
3. Bring canned goods to the Cross Points Food Pantry one Sunday.
4. While you’re out, compliment a parent on how well-behaved their child is.
5. When everyone around you is gossiping about someone, be the one to butt in with something nice.
6. Cook a meal or do a load of laundry for a friend who just had a baby or is going through a difficult time.
7. Hang out with the person who just moved to town.
8. Offer a homeless person your leftovers bag from the restaurant.
9. Each time you get a new piece of clothing, donate an old one.
10. Donate used furniture or help volunteer one day at Shawnee Community Services.
11. Email or write an old teacher who made a difference in your life.
12. Compliment someone to their boss.
13. Leave a nice server the biggest tip you can afford.
14. Smile at someone on the street, just because.
15. Let someone into your lane. They’re probably in a rush just like you
16. Help a mother with her baby stroller.
17. Become a reader at one of the public schools.
18. Let the person behind you at the supermarket checkout ahead of you.
19. Write someone a letter. Like a real letter, on paper. And mail it!
20. Give away stuff for free on Craigslist.
21. Give someone a book you think they’d like.
22. Be the person who puts a tip in the tip jar at the coffeeshop. (Fewer people tip than you’d think!)
23. Bring in fun office supplies to liven up the workday for everyone.
24. When you go somewhere to get or do something, ask the people around you if you can pick up anything they need.
25. Give someone a hug.
26. Call your grandparents. Call them!
27. Donate your old eyeglasses so someone else can use them.
28. When you’re throwing something away on the street, pick up any litter around you and put that in the trash too.
29. Write something nice on that person’s updates who posts on Facebook constantly. They’re probably lonely.
30. Sincerely compliment your boss.
31. Put sticky notes with positive slogans on the mirrors in restrooms.
32. Let them have the parking space.
33. Relay an overheard compliment.
34. Bring your spouse coffee in bed tomorrow.
35. Try to make sure every person in a group conversation feels included.
36. Stop to talk to a homeless person.
37. Answer that email you’ve been avoiding.
38. Send anonymous flowers to the receptionist at work.
39. Donate or recycle your old laptop and electronics.
40. Play board games with senior citizens at a nursing home. Sixty percent of them will never have a visitor during their stay.
41. Give someone a tissue who’s crying in the public, and offer to talk about it, but only if they want to.
42. Listen intently.
43. Babysit for a single mom for free.
44. Adopt a rescue pet.
45. Compliment someone in front of others.
46. Hold the elevator.
47. Leave some extra quarters in the laundry room.
48. Write your partner a list of things you love about them.
49. Put together a small herb garden for someone.
50. Say thank you to a janitor.
51. Talk to someone at work whom you haven’t talked to before.
52. Frame your friend’s favorite lyric or quote and give it to them with a nice note.
53. Send dessert to another table.
54. Text someone just to say good morning or good night.
55. Help your elderly neighbor take out the trash or mow their lawn.
56. Tell your siblings how much you appreciate them.
57. Bring a security guard a hot cup of coffee.
58. Plant a tree.
59. Purchase some extra dog or cat food and drop it off at an animal shelter.
60. If you’re a good photographer, take photos of your friends and make them into a digital album.
61. Send mail to Danny Nickerson, a 5-year-old with an inoperable brain tumor.
62. Smile when you feel like scowling.
63. Wash someone’s car.
64. Dog or cat sit for free.
65. Keep an extra umbrella at work and let someone borrow it on their way home if there’s a sudden downpour.
66. Make two lunches and give one away.
67. Reduce air pollution by carpooling.
68. Say yes at the store when the cashier asks if you want to donate $1 to whichever cause.
69. Be encouraging!
70. Help someone struggling with heavy bags.
71. Give your friend a hug, touch their arm, or pat them on the back. So many of us are starved for human touch!
72. Give your partner the benefit of the doubt.
73. Be kind to the customer service rep on the phone. It’s not their fault.
74. Do the dishes even if it’s your roommate’s turn.
75. Give someone the rest of your pack of gum.
76. Clean someone’s windshield.
77. Make plans with that person you’ve been putting off seeing.
78. Call your mom.
79. Offer to return a shopping cart to the store for someone loading groceries in their car.
80. Have a clean-up party at a park.
81. Take all your change to Coinstar and donate your collection to one of our teens traveling to Taiwan for this years youth missions trip.