Weekly Shots Of Kindness

Weekly Shots of Kindness

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

“Hi! Come on in,” my neighbor Monica said with a bright smile, opening the front door to welcome me in and then quickly closing it behind me to shut out the Minnesota cold. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her youngest son peeking around the kitchen island at me, his blond hair sticking up and blue eyes wide, her three other boys already off at school for the day.

The trip to her house was one I’d been making every week. My oldest daughter was premature, and each successive pregnancy required me to get weekly shots in my hips for twenty weeks—five months’ worth of shots that left me limping for a day or two afterward—to help extend my pregnancy to full term. When I found out I was pregnant with our third child, I was thrilled, but since I was no longer working in the same city as my clinic, I was worried about making it all the way to my appointments every week. Hesitantly, I reached out to my neighbor Monica. As a nurse in the birthing area of a local hospital, she graciously agreed to give me my shots.

That’s how I found myself, week after week, tromping through the snow to stand at her door, enter her home, and get my shot. She took time out of her schedule—early in the morning, during lunch, or even in the evening—on the same day each week to make sure she could administer them for me.

Sometimes it can be hard to know exactly how we can share one another’s burdens. Yet in the case of my sweet neighbor, she managed to do exactly that. I know there were some weeks that it was surely an inconvenience to squeeze me into her schedule, yet not once did she ever seem to be anything but kind and patient and happy to see me—and I was so thankful to have the burden lifted.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Do something to intentionally ease someone else’s burden.