Love, Love, Love

I am totally stealing today's blog from my churches blog, but I loved it so much I think it is worth sharing. Our church is starting a "Love Revolution." What is that you ask? Basically is you (or me) showing Gods love through simple, random acts of kindness. These are some of the verses that we have used during this love revolution.

“Love your neighbor as yourself." – Matt 22:39 (NLT) This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. – 1 John 4:10-11 (NLT)

The thing I want to share with you is this: 100 Creative Ideas to Love Others:

1. Return your grocery cart.
2. Clean up your local park.
3. Send an encouraging text to a friend.
4. Send someone a letter in the mail.
5. Ask your waiter how their day is going.
6. Randomly choose people to give some of your tax refund money to.
7. Take out your neighbor’s trash.
8. Organize a benefit.
9. Give what you’ve got, even if it is just a dollar.
10. Smile at a stranger.
11. Leave a note of encouragement.
12. Give a meal to a beggar.
13. Eat lunch with someone who doesn’t have many friends.
14. Give someone a hug.
15. Surprise someone by sending a care package or gift for no reason.
16. Take an elderly person shopping.
17. Pay for the person’s meal behind you in the drive-thru line.
18. Adopt a child.
19. Leave an encouraging post on a friend’s Facebook.
20. Mow your neighbor’s lawn.
21. Buy school supplies for your neighbor’s kids.
22. Help someone struggling to lift something heavy.
23. Discover a person’s potential and encourage them.
24. Let someone go in front of you in line.
25. Keep a “gift closet” and give someone that comes to visit you a gift.
26. Let someone else have the last sale item.
27. Forgive a loan.
28. Leave a few quarters at the Laundromat for a stranger’s load of laundry.
29. Tell your boss when a coworker does a great job.
30. Make amends with family members.
31. Fulfill someone else’s need (i.e. buy lunch for someone struggling with debt.)
32. Leave a gift for your mailman.
33. Plant flowers in a public place.
34. Pay someone’s electric bill.
35. Clean the house when your parents are out.
36. Open a door for someone.
37. Throw a surprise party just because.
38. Call a friend and encourage them.
39. Visit someone in the hospital.
40. Befriend someone outside your usual group.
41. Pay for someone else’s fuel at the gas station.
42. Give extra money to your child’s classroom for the children who don’t have money for treats anytime they take a field trip.
43. Generously tip your waiter or waitress.
44. Partner with a humanitarian aid group.
45. Spend quality time with your family.
46. Buy birthday gifts for a family in need.
47. Get to know the cashier at the grocery store.
48. Volunteer somewhere new.
49. Bake cookies for a neighbor.
50. Give blood.
51. Join a walk for a cause.
52. Pay someone a compliment.
53. Shave your head to support a friend going through cancer treatment.
54. Call a friend or loved one that you haven’t talked to in a while.
55. Cover a struggling friend’s rent.
56. Help someone load groceries in their car.
57. Invite someone for coffee.
58. Give a homeless person some bus money.
59. Invite people over for dinner.
60. Be a courteous driver.
61. Lead a parent support group.
62. Pay for someone’s groceries at the market.
63. Bake someone a cake.
64. Clean/Mow an elderly or widow’s yard.
65. Pick up trash you didn’t drop.
66. Call someone to chat.
67. Pay for another table’s meal at a restaurant.
68. Pray for someone while you walk.
69. Refold or rehang the clothes in the store.
70. Give up a parking spot.
71. Donate your clothes.
72. Give up your seat.
73. Invite someone to church.
74. Keep items in your car to give away to those in need.
75. Babysit for free.
76. Give a piece of jewelry.
77. Get to know a neighbor.
78. Write someone a poem.
79. Volunteer at a crisis facility and befriend an individual you volunteer for.
80. Give someone a gift you know they’ve wanted for a while.
81. Be nice to a telemarketer.
82. Write a personal note sharing God’s promises from the Bible to a friend or relative in need of a pick-me-up.
83. Donate books to your local library.
84. Listen to someone who needs to talk.
85. Help the waiter or busboy clean off your table at a restaurant.
86. Share your groceries with those in need.
87. Clean a friend’s house.
88. Encourage or be friendly with other patients in your doctor’s waiting room.
89. Share your umbrella.
90. Give out bottles of water.
91. Send out an inspirational, encouraging, or uplifting email.
92. Talk with a homeless person.
93. Tell the janitor “thank you”.
94. Leave chocolate on your coworkers’ desks.
95. Help someone else with their child’s school fees.
96. Give someone directions.
97. Read to a child.
98. Say “thank you” to your local policemen, firemen, and other service men.
99. Pick up your neighbor’s mail and newspaper when they are out of town.
100. Share the gospel with someone.

I highlighted a 'few' that really stood out to me. I love this list because some of them really are a simple simple task.

Yesterday I had an emergency dentist appointment for a chip tooth and I have to say that I was 'LOVED' by my neighbor who took Ashlee right in and watched her while I took care of my tooth. I am so thankful for her being my neighbor and for her showing love in that way. She took away a huge burden that I was trying to figure out how to deal with.

Each day I try to remember that I have no idea what other people are going through in life. So, when someone does something that is not so 'loving' I try to remember that they could be having a bad day. I have had bad days and done things that were not nice. That person who is having a bad day may be the person behind you in the drive through and when you bought their lunch you turned their day around. Random act of kindness can do wonders from someone! I am excited to be apart of the Love Revolution at Keystone Church!