Intentional Kindness During Advent

Intentional Kindness during Advent

Blessed are those who are generous.

Proverbs 22:9

Tired of Christmas being hijacked by too many gifts and stores targeting our children with ads for the newest, latest, and greatest, my family now focuses on the sacred meaning of the Advent season. We do this by intentionally giving with abundant generosity through a variety of kind acts in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

While some of our acts of generosity are done quietly and secretly, we’ve discovered the joy of partnering with others in blessing those around us. We’ve included our extended family, Sunday school classes, and churches in our kind acts, and we love the community and encouragement we’ve found. It feels like we’re a part of something bigger than just our family.

If you are looking for inspiration for how to fit this into your own Christmas season, know that kind acts during Advent can be done daily, once a week, or as one big kind act every Christmas season.

It is so fun to hear all the ways in which our friends and families join us in living out the command to be generous with others. My friend Becky and her family have adopted the one-big-kind-act model. She and her husband buy gift cards to a local grocery store, put them into sealed Christmas cards, and then allow their child to hand out the cards to strangers who are walking into the grocery store on a busy Saturday morning. They give no hint as to what is in the card, and their child delights in knowing that he is choosing who gets the gift cards.

The possibilities for incorporating kind acts into your Advent and Christmas season are endless. It’s a time of year in which hurting people generally ache even more, and opportunities abound for reaching out to others as a tangible expression of God’s love, inviting people into relationship with him. We are called to look out for others, not just ourselves, and kindness during the Christmas season is a beautiful way to point toward our Savior.

—Julie

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Ask a family member or friend to join you in an act of kindness.