Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

It’s definitely looking more like fall. You all know what that means? It means that soon it will be winter, and definitely not the time one likes to spend cleaning the car (or sometimes even being outside in the northern U.S.!). So, it’s time to start winterizing the house, looking for ways to make it better insulated, and… oh wait! This is how we show kindness!

Before it gets too cold, clean out your spouse?s vehicle for them! That’s right! Clean out their car (but don’t throw away their favorite map or anything). If you share the car, clean out the family car. You’ll be glad you did, and it’s something you need to do anyway, right?

Mission Accomplished

Mary went over to a friend’s house and shared some time and coffee with a friend, even though her toddler had chicken pox.

Twas grand. And true friends don?t mind exposure to chicken pox. (Wink).

Kindness Demonstrated

Mission Accomplished

Mary did the weekend kindness late because of a lightning storm, but she was unable to watch children, and it was a good thing!

My youngest woke up feverish and dotted with chicken pox this morning. Would have hated to pass that along to a family with a newborn!

Kindness Demonstrated

It’s time for fellowship, friendship, and kindness!

This week’s challenge is to buy someone a cup of coffee. So, find a friend, take them out for a cup o’ joe and learn more about them! (Let us know what you learn, and buy them a dougnut if they don’t like coffee!)

As always, if this challenge is not something you’ll be able to do, write about sometime that you were kind or had kindness demonstrated to you! We’ll link to you anyway!

Claudia had kindness displayed to her on a missions trip to Latin America:

I applied for the opportunity to live in a community in a Latin American country for two weeks without being aware of what I would be exposed to, what feelings I would feel, who I would meet and what I would eat. It was an unknown world to me and a plunge into the unknown. Change is hard and being placed in new environment that is unlike what one is used to is a challenge itself.

When we first arrived to Panama we were taken into a Vincentian Formation Center in which we were welcomed with love and a lot of Panamanian food. We found a world of great hospitality with our hosts and in my heart I felt that they went the extra mile to make us feel welcomed. I personally felt that they did not have to do that and felt troubled expressing my gratitude for their hospitality. Everyone in the group was grateful and amazed at the great kindness that was demonstrated by the Panamanians. Through my journey I found Panamanians to be kind and unselfish. They provide the best for their guests even if they did not have much to provide. They received satisfaction as one accepted their act of kindness and to say, “No, Thank you” would bring disappointment and lack of respect to them. God was present in every person that provided us with any commodity to make us feel welcomed and comfortable in the foreign land. The Panamanians taught me that I did not have to be rich to be happy. Whether we have a lot or a little, it is significant to make something out of nothing in this life. They taught me to be humble and modest in my society. I learned to accept as well as to give. Panamanians are role models and they helped me to overcome the challenge of being uncomfortable with hospitality and to share what blessings I have been given with my community.

It’s amazing what kindness to those that we do not know or who are different then us can do to a person.  We may never know the total impact that our simple acts of kindness may have on others.  Let this be an encouragement to you to demonstrate kindness in even the most mundane circumstances, and especially to people that may not be like you!

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can make this concept impact our culture, and I think that we need to do more than just post three times a week on a challenge.  I think that we need to start highlighting acts of kindness that we see in the news and in real life on this site.

To this end, I’m asking you, Weekend Kindness Readers / Agents, if you’d like to partner with us in our attempt to highlight acts of kindness across the web and in the world.  I’m looking for bloggers to commit to one post a week that’d be a link and a short blurb on someone else’s kindness (be it from a blog, a news item, etc) or something original from your life.

We’ll still have the challenges and try to get people to go with us on those adventures, but this way we can also provide encouragement and strength to those that don’t believe that there are people like us around any more.

Are you willing to embark on this adventure with us?

Well, it looks like it is Mary and Shelli - though Shelli asks if babysitting a garage sale counts!

If you didn?t sign up, you can still do one and we?ll pick you up via Technorati!

View Weekend Kindness Entries as they Appear!