R.a.k. 'em with Kindness

Becoming a gold-mining mom has encouraged me to look for ways for us to live out God's truths in our family's life - not just tell my kids about them. It's not always easy, and believe me, I often fail. But finding creative ways to keep God's Words in front of us and put them into action with my kids has helped. That old saying, "It's better caught than taught" is so true. So, we've adopted the approach as a family that "we" are learning together how to live and love like Jesus - not just trying to teach "them." They seem to respond so much better when we make it a team approach.

As a continuation of yesterday's post, I wanted to share with you a few more practical ways we've focused on living and giving the treasure of "kindness." Here are some more "treasures of truth" that tell us how to show kindness through our words and in our actions:

• “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24
  
  
• “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” Proverbs 12:25
  
  
• “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

A few years ago, we were on vacation, and we'd taken our Mining for Gold in the Heart of Your Child chart with us so we could do family devotions. We decided to focus on "kindness" that week. M husband came up with ways we could do Random Acts of Kindness, and developed a contest to see who could do the most. That afternoon we were headed to the grocery store and I heard him say, "Come on boys, let's go R.A.K. 'em." Here are few ways we have learned to "R.A.K ‘em" with kindness in our house:

1. Make a list of different ways to rack up R.A.K.‘em points. Here are some ideas:

Offer to take someone’s grocery cart to the “cart corral” in the parking lot.

Open the door for someone you don’t know.

Cook brownies for a new neighbor.

Pay for the order of the car behind you next time you are in the drive-thru.

Mow grass or shovel snow for a neighbor

Wash your spouses car.

Send a note of encouragement to a pastor at your church.

Take flowers to a nursing home.

Hug your mom or dad when they least expect it.

Make your brother or sister's bed.

2. Pick a day this week to do Random Acts of Kindness. Saturday is a great day to start!

3. Have everyone look for ways to R.A.K. someone at the grocery store, in the neighborhood, at work and even at home.

4. Keep a tally of how many times each person RAKs someone and see who has the highest score the end of the day.

5. The person with the highest RAK’em score gets to choose something special, ie. pick a family night activity or order their favorite dessert.

I don't think we can ever be more like Jesus than when we are kind! And I don't ever think we can emphasize it too much in our homes, our churches, our schools and communities. What are some other ways your family shows kindness?

Coming up....since we all learned so much from Marybeth's post here on Tuesday, I've asked her to share more financial truths we can teach to our kids in tomorrow's post. See you then!

Copyright 2009. Renee Swope - All rights reserved.

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Today's Mom Give-Aways

Today we are giving away two D6 mom resources - a copy of Finding Home by Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, and a D6 gift pak that includes a D6 Mom Tshirt and a year's worth of Family Devotional Magazines from D6. Please include your email so we can reach you if you win.

We're giving away gifts each weekday, so be sure to come back for more mom encouragement and resources from D6 and Proverbs 31 Ministries!