Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

This morning I will be taking my oldest son to the doctor.  Some of you know that he has struggled with allergies and we?re still trying to narrow down one of his symptoms.  Today?s test will be three hours of ?drink this and wait.?

Parents today can look at their children as a burden?just one more person that they?re responsible for.  Parents are trained to look to others to raise their children?be they grandparents, day care or school.  The thing is, you, as their parent, have the best ability to influence them for good or ill.

If you spend the time that you have together under the same roof apart from each other, getting what you think is important, you may find that you miss the opportunity to connect with your children, to pass on what truly matters and to be a good example to them.

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The hardest thing for a human to do is to face a problem alone.  The fact is, we?re social beings?we thrive on interpersonal contact.  We need one another in order to survive, especially when difficulties arrive.

That is one of the reasons that God gave Eve to Adam, and that children are born to a set of parents that love them unconditionally.

If we are to build long lasting relationships, we cannot simply be around when times are good?we also have to be there when times get difficult.  We need to support one another when others seem to think that there?s no chance.

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This week has been full of family for me.  Last Sunday, I went to a graduation party for my previous pastor?s oldest son and then travelled back home to celebrate (belatedly) my sister?s birthday.

Tuesday, my sister and her friend travelled to my house and spent the night.

Tomorrow we?re off to spend some time with my in-laws?to visit with my nephew and family.

Spending time with family?unplugged and talking around dinner or a campfire?helps you bond with them, helps you to reconnect and to re-establish roots.

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Barbara has a great list about marriage?speaking specifically about what a woman looks for in a husband as she passes different age milestones.

This lead me to an obvious set of questions:

• What is it that you looked for when you were out looking for a spouse?
• How does that compare to your current husband/wife?

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If you?re a girl, or you?ve dated a girl, no doubt you?ve seen a chick flick.  All romance, sometimes partly comedy, these films are part of the reason that people believe what they do about marriage and love today.

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I know it?s been a while since we?ve done an actual ?Weekend Kindness? challenge?I mean, I don?t know if the whole ?internet grand meme? thing has gone the way of Thursday Thirteens, but as I see many blogs still doing different memes, I thought I?d offer this one.

For anyone that does it, and mentions this post (drop a comment or a trackback) I?ll include a link in the body of this post back to you.

Traditions

What family traditions do you and your family have that make you unique?

My mother is the one in the family that tried to establish different traditions.  One of them was always including one of those chocolate orange candies in our Christmas stockings.  Another was always making sure to kiss us good night.

As far as things we always did, we always made it to church every Sunday (morning and evening) and Wednesday nights.  They always made sure we were at Vacation Bible School?either as workers or as students.

What different traditions do you have?  Anything exotic?

Mike Bright sent me an e-mail the other day, telling me about a great  site that he runs that I?d thought I?d share with you:

I run a website called ‘Help From Home‘ which provides information on easy, no commitment volunteering opportunities that can all be performed from the comfort of a person’s home. Almost all of the 450 plus actions listed on the site will cost nothing or very little to complete and take no more than 30 minutes to accomplish. Some can even be performed in under 10 seconds without getting out of your favourite chair or pyjamas!

I run it on a purely altruistic basis and what I’m attempting to do is to encourage people to see that volunteering for worthy causes can actually be conducted from within their own house, rather than the more traditional approach of joining a group of people at a certain place and a certain time to participate in actions that benefit others.

Most of us spend a lot of time in our own home. and if people were able to donate between 10 to 30 minutes of this home time to such endeavours on a one-off, daily, weekly or monthly basis, just think how much of an impact collectively it could potentially make into the goals and aims of initiatives that are attempting to create ta better world for us to live in.

In closing then, I believe the opportunities listed on the website really can spread kindness and if you do visit the website, I’m hoping you’ll be able to see what good there is that can be done ?.. dressed just in your pyjamas!

Regards

Mike Bright

It looks like a great idea, and it?s something worth checking out!