FindingJoy4Eternity Blog

These cute warm Christmas socks are ready to be mailed to one of our favorite elderly ladies.

This past Friday David got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a local florist shop. While he was there he overheard some rudeness towards the floral employees so we decided to go back personally and show our thanks.  We took these peppermint patty thank yous and let them know what a wonderful job they did!  Always say thank you!

10 little packages ready to go to be shipped to some of our smaller friends.   Each package has a Your Story Hour CD and a couple of sheets of stickers. Some will go to kids who don't go to church and some will just go to kids who we thought would enjoy getting a little surprise in the mail!

We got lots of snow yesterday and so adventurers was cancelled. But that gave me a little more time to add a sharing gift to the devotional thought that I was preparing. These little bags have Peppermint Patties inside. One for the child and four for them to each give away with a Merry Christmas!

We had fun today hiding random act of kindness dollars in the dollar store. Wouldn't it be so fun to see people find them?

Dime after dime after dime...  :)  It's fun for them to watch as the dimes twirl down into the funnel and it helps a good cause.

We went a the annual Christmas Stroll at the Adventist Heritage Village and at the end they give you an opportunity to hang a money ornament on their tree. All the donations go to help the police support Toys For Tots.

This was a really fun activity! I bought a package of York Peppermint Patties and just handed them out to random people and said Merry Christmas. People's responses were hilarious and amazing! One lady after going on and on told us how it made her day. Some looked at us kind of funny because they just weren't quite sure what was going on and then realized we were just giving them a gift and were so happy and thankful. Lots of smiles. It was a fun day!

Happy mail is something that you mail without wrapping it.  We have a friend who really likes Kroger popcorn and she doesn't live near a Kroger so we bought a package, addressed it, and sent it off in the mail.  How fun to receive something like this in the mail!

I'm sure overseas soldiers are lonely at Christmas time. Probably they miss home all the time so we took some time to make a few cards. If you'd like to also, check out this website:  http://www.americasadoptasoldier.org

This has been one of my favorite little acts of kindness this month!  We dropped off a bottle of laundry soap at the laundromat and left it with the lady in charge.  We told her it was just for anyone that needed it. She was thrilled! She was so touched that someone would do that and sent us off with lots of smiles and hugs and God bless you!

These people are faithful!  We see this particular lady ringing her bell all the time.  I happened to be at Walmart twice on Sunday and she was there at 11am when I went the first time and was just getting off when I went at 7pm the same day!  We always try to put something small in the bucket and this year were also taking the Ringers treats when we can. 

We had some extra coupons that we didn't need so we left them on the shelves with the product.  Plus we left a little bonus Glow tract pack to go along with it.

People always appreciate homemade applesauce!

In the last month we've helped three families with their fall clean-up.  Everything from cleaning a garage to cleaning up a yard to cleaning up a garden! All this young energy should be put to good use!  Service is one of the best uses possible!

It's amazing how much a simple meal can mean to someone, but to a young busy mom of young children, it can mean so much!

This is our November Glow tract pack. It's so important to say thank you...especially to those who hear that phrase so little, yet serve so faithfully! We like to hand these out to anyone who serves us in our community. The mail person, store clerks, dry cleaner, any business we use or to anyone who helps us!

I've been praying about what I can do to meet and mingle with neighbors.  Where we are living right now the people seem to keep to themselves and haven't been overly friendly.  We've only met people because we've gone to them and because of the space between houses it is not easy to just talk here and there when we're outside.  As we were walking one evening, as we do a lot during three seasons of the year,  the idea came to me that we could keep track of when houses in the neighborhood sell and then welcome the new families with bread or some other gift. Tonight we tried it for the first time and it was truly successful.  Our gift was fresh baked raisin cinnamon bread. We spent some enjoyable time talking and getting to know two new families, and they truly seemed to appreciate the kind gesture. If in doubt, spread kindness.

Our Kindness Bowl All our names are in there and on ocassion we each draw a name and have about 48 hours to come up with something special to do for that person. Here are a few things that have come from this... Being intentional helps to create habits of kindness.

One of the best things a person can learn is to live outside of himself so when it comes to holidays we concentrate lots of effort on helping others to celebrate!   We took valentines and muffins to the homeless shelter in town.  Something for the kids.  Something for the adults.

On National Baking Day, May 17, we took the opportunity to bake all sorts of goodies for the local Women and Children's Shelter.  They were so thankful and it did our hearts good as well! "It is more blessed to give than to receive."  Acts 20:35

When we had a school in our church district we loved doing special things for the kids.  We loved being involved in field trips and speical projects.  We loved making them meals and treats and eating with them.  We also loved to leave little gifts on their desks.  These are a few ideas... These we used when we did an appreciation for all the church members who helped and support the school kids in some way.  We gave the ladies the cookie cutters andthe men a package of nuts.

There are so many things that children can help with at an evangelism series....especially in a small church!  They greeted, scanned tags, did the health talk,  played they piano, helped with the AV, cleaned bathrooms, swept and vacuumed....  They did their share and were blessed!