Hidden Notes
Hidden Notes
Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.
Proverbs 12:25
“You guys, there’s some kind of little note in here!” my friend Savannah heard the young woman in the bathroom stall next to her tell her friends.
Smiling to herself, Savannah knew what the girl would find: a note card with a Bible verse on it, tucked into an envelope along with some chocolate. Earlier that day, she and some friends had purchased the items, assembled the little gifts, and then tucked them all over their large college campus in little nooks and crannies, in out-of-the-way places, and even in bathrooms for other students to find.
The girl’s friends wanted her to wait to open the envelope so they could see too, but in her excitement she opened it without them, exclaiming over the note and chocolate. “I guess there really are good people in the world,” the girl said as she exited the bathroom.
When Savannah placed the gifts of encouragement anonymously, she wasn’t looking for affirmation or credit—she didn’t even think she would get to know what happened to them. In fact, she had placed this particular note in the bathroom many hours earlier, and it was happenstance that it got opened while she was in the room.
Yet not only did she get to overhear someone’s reaction, but amazingly, her friends reported back to her that even though they’d hidden only sixty treats on a campus of more than sixteen thousand undergrads, they overheard people in their classes talking about the hidden gifts. The girls’ motivation to let others know that they are loved by God and by others showed that, as Proverbs notes, an encouraging word really can cheer someone up. Taking time out of their busy schedules to assemble small gifts for strangers and distribute them anonymously was a simple way to quietly show others love. Even actions we perceive as small can have a big impact.
— Today’s Act of Kindness —
Leave an anonymous encouraging note in a bathroom or another out-of-the-way place for someone else to find.
From the book
