Birthday Week RAKs

My sister has been asking me to share my birthday present to myself.  It was kind of a different birthday for me this year because Stephen was on a business trip to Scotland and the kids are away from home.  So I was on my own.  I wanted to have a focus on others to help me not be so lonely with the family away.

So I decided to try to do 46 Random Acts of Kindness--one for each year of my life.  I thought doing them all on my birthday would be awesome but quickly realized that I better pace myself throughout my birthday week.  I discovered that it was hard to do "random" acts and that I had to plan a little to get things accomplished.  And I discovered that 46 was a bigger number than I thought it was so I enlisted the help of a couple of my sisters, my daughter and my son.  Between us all, I think we got 'er done.

Every day I woke up and thought about what I wanted to accomplish.  There were a couple of quotes in the last General Conference of my church that motivated me:

"The opportunity to be a blessing in the life of another often comes unexpectedly."  

President Thomas S. Monson

"I have learned . . . 

never to postpone a prompting."  

President Thomas S. Monson

I found out that as I was more service minded that more opportunities came to me to help others.  And as I did kind things, they were often reciprocated with a smile or a note or a kind word.  Even when I was trying to be anonymous.  My favorite reaction was when a little treat and note to the mail lady led to the ring of my doorbell the next day with Norma hand delivering my mail and thanking me for making her day.

Here's a sampling of some of the things we accomplished during the week.

1. Wrote a memory I had of a great man from my hometown who had passed away and sent it to his daughter-in-law.
2. Let someone go ahead of me in the grocery store line.
3. Put a box of Skittles with a thank you note in the mailbox for our mail carrier.
4. Took a get well basket to a friend with the flu.
5. Sent $20 and a card to my daughter to go towards her den leader uniform.
6. Prepared a family night lesson to share with friends.
7. Emailed my son some meal ideas with recipes.
8. Wrote a thank you note to friends who had me over for lunch.
9. Offered to plan a luncheon for a friend when she was in town.
10. Sent invitations out for the luncheon.
11. Followed a prompting to call a friend and ask how things were going.
12. Wrote a letter to a missionary--my missionary!
13. Ask the sister missionaries if I could fix them lunch (I realized that they hadn't sent signups around because of General Conference).
14. Made cupcakes for 40 hungry youth.
15. Gathered shopping carts from the parking lot and took them into the grocery store.
16. Conducted a youth choir practice (on my birthday).
17. Fed the missionaries lunch.
18. Lent our folding tables to a neighbor and delivered them to make it easier for her.
19. Accompanied the missionaries as they taught an investigator.
20. Bore my testimony to the investigator.

My sisters, daughter and son did things too!

1. Baked a surprise chocolate cake for her husband.
2. Called and visited with me to keep me from being lonely while Stephen was gone.
3. Sent a cute picture of my granddaughter to me.
4. Gave a $25 coupon to a lady ahead of them in line at the fabric store.
5. Carried the lady's bags to her car for her.
6. "Boo"ed 3 families--Halloween treats on the doorsteps
7. Sent a popcorn treat to the 8th grade girls volleyball team wishing them good luck at the game.
8. Did some volunteer work for the Art Mom and Dad program at school.
9. Delivered the project to the art parent coordinator.
10. Helped a guy at the grocery store pick up his spilled Ramen noodles.
11. Helped a couple of sisters at the temple.
12. Served in the temple.
13. Served in the temple.
14. Served in the temple.
15. Served in the temple.  (counts 4 times because 3 of my sisters and my mom did it together.)
16. Turned a moth over so it wouldn't die.
17. Held open doors for girls on campus and let them enter the buildings first.
18. Took President Monson's priesthood session talk to heart and told some women that they were beautiful.  " . . . a woman needs to be told she is beautiful.  She needs to be told she is valued.  She needs to be told she is worthwhile."

It was a great birthday week!  I'd recommend it to anyone.

"When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom which the Lord bestows up you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated."

President Lorenzo Snow

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