Every month for 2014, our family has decided to choose a different challenge to focus and work on.
We’re calling it 12 in 1: Getting Unstuck.
12 different challenges in 1 years time to truly getting our family unstuck.
And for February, the month of love, we fittingly chose to focus on kindness.
An entire month dedicated to serving others.
Loving others selflessly.
Thinking more of others than ourselves.
Being kind at all times, even when it may not come naturally or easily.
Before February began, we went around the dinner table discussing ideas on how we could put this focus into action. We asked ourselves and the kids, “How can we individually make an effort each and every day to show kindness and love, and how can we as a family serve together?”
I took notes quietly, with misty eyes, as I listened to my children excitedly suggest one kind gesture or loving act of service after another. Their hearts were alive, as most hearts tend to be when the focus is taken off itself.
Their simple thoughts of kindness, before ever being executed, were already changing lives.
Theirs.
And mine.
And while we have big ideas, exciting ideas, and some ideas we’ve already put into action….after reflecting on this post, it seemed the right thing not to list them publicly.
I want my kids to learn to serve and to love and to do kind things, because that’s how we were made to be. Because that’s the kind of Love we’re called to live. Because Loving this way is what repairs hearts and lives, ours included.
But not ever to get noticed or praised. Not ever.
We love and we serve, because He loved and He served.
And so each morning for the next 28 days (less when this posts), we will be waking up thinking of others first and how can we love better throughout our day.
Yet, just like last month, we will continually cling to grace.
We understand we will falter.
We will be unkind.
We will be selfish.
We will forget to think beyond what was comfortable for us.
But each night as we sit together as a family, we’ll share where we failed and we’ll share where we found success, and most importantly we’ll remind each other that tomorrow’s a new day.
A new day filled with fresh hope and opportunities to love, to serve, to be kind…to try again.
“It’s not about being the best. It’s about trying for better than yesterday.”
[…] still need to write a post wrapping up all that we experienced and learned throughout our February challenge of service and kindness, but given that we are now into the first week of March, I thought I better first address our new […]