Random Acts of Kindness

This is what I found in my mailbox on Saturday.

Here's the story:

John and I don't have "real" cell phones. We use the kinds you have to pay for as you use them. They are only for emergencies (like when I find a great deal while shopping, I call him to say, "I think we need these Christmas dishes."). We take them with us when we travel, but they are rarely turned on.

Recently, we lost my cell phone, or I should say John lost my cell phone. I then got an email that said it was past time to top up (pay for your continued service). I didn't want to pay for my cell phone if it was somewhere smashed in a parking lot. So, we looked and looked and never found. The thing is, if you don't top up, you lose your service, and can't get the same phone number back, or something like that. So, I gave up.

Last Friday, John finds the cell phone, in a place I had looked three times. Saturday, I open the mailbox and find that my phone had been given a free $10 top up. WHAT?? They saved my phone from losing service! Thank you Virgin Mobile! I love your rockin' customer service, and your random acts of kindness.

It made me feel so good, as if I had won the lottery or something, not just $10. Coincidentally, I have been thinking about random acts of service recently because of part of a show I watched last week, ABC's, What Would You Do? THIS video clip brought me to tears! It is well worth the ENTIRE seven minutes to watch, and ask yourself, "What would you do?" So, stop reading this, and watch the video, then you can come back and finish reading. Or, just watch the video and don't come back, but watch the video.

From an early age I witnessed my mom performing random acts of kindness. I have no doubt, that my mom would have been a Linda Hamilton from the video.

Once, while waiting for a layover in a Chicago train station my mother was approached by a woman asking for money, my mother declined, but instead took her to a place in the station and fed her breakfast. The thing is, she didn't just buy her breakfast, she sat with her while she ate, and then of all things gave the woman, a complete stranger, a hug and a kiss when they parted. (My mom had no problem giving people she had just met a kiss on the cheek, she was a tiny bundle of love, my mom.) The story does not stop here. She was then approached by a mother with a little girl who also asked for money, she took them and fed them too

In recent emails, my dad has shared some other random acts of service my mother rendered.

"One time your mother had me turn around and go back because I hadn't stopped and given a man holding a sign wanting money. She said I had missed an easy chance to serve and receive blessings."

In another email, he sent this, I don't know if it was the same man asking for money or not;

"Mom told me once when I questioned whether it was appropriate to give some money to a well dressed man in Santa Barbara, CA. who sat on the pier and asked us. She said, "We are not here to judge, we are here to serve!" I went to give the man some money."

On family vacations we often stopped and ate meals, picnic style, at public parks. We were often approached by people asking for food, and while I was a little leary having "these" people so close to us, my mother and father would treat them as if they were a guest in our home, not taking a second thought to it, preparing them a sandwhich and piling chips onto a plate for them. I remember once, one man just kept saying, "I could just tell you were good people," and "I knew you were good Christian people." One man even said to my father, "You must be a preacher or a pastor or something." Even though I was always a little nervous (remember, I'm paranoid. Even back then), I remember feeling so good inside, and proud that my parents were such kind people.

Don't we sometimes think we are better than people we see holding signs asking for money? If I am being honest, I do. I imagine myself saying to the person, "The MacDonald's you are standing next to has a 'Now Hiring" sign in the window." I don't always think that, but I am a little embarrassed to admit that I do sometimes. But, usually the thought of my mother makes me feel guilty that I don't have a granola bar to offer out of the window. That is one thing I loved about that video clip, Linda Hamilton, a sometimes homeless person, was the one that was "better" than all of those passerbys that day.

Sure, occassionally I hand change out of the window, but not often enough. I do it more often if John is driving, I am a slightly paranoid person. Another time, I just thought of (I told you there may be long posts) we were driving to California with my sister in law, and we were in the middle of Nevada, driving slowly, getting ready to pass an accident on the side of the road. We could see it looked like a mother and a few children standing out in the heat. Automatically, my sister in law said, "we should give them some water and snacks for the kids." So, we gathered some stuff up and handed it to them. I was embarrassed I didn't think of it first.

There have been so many times where I have talked to a friend on the phone in the morning and heard they were sick or had a cold, and I would end the conversation with, "hope you feel better." Later that evening, or a day later it would hit me, "I should have made them some soup or something." It really bugs me that that would not be my first thought after hanging up the phone when talking to them. I know my mother would have thought of that.

So, my challenge for myself today is to perform a random act of kindness, and it could be more than one "act" of kindness. I will report back to you on Wednesday. Feel free to play along. You can report back here, or put it on your own blog. Today, I am going to pay it forward (thank you, Virgin Mobile), pass it on, and look for ways I can perform random acts of service.