entitled kids
We're always looking for fun and easy ways to encourage kindness in our homes, and we're sharing our ideas and resources with you!
1. Kindness Bingo. Create your own bingo card filled with simple kind acts your family can do for one another with this free bingo card generator. The first to reach a bingo on their card through kind acts get a prize - maybe it's choosing dinner that night, an extra cookie for dessert, or whatever else motivates your family.
2. Add kindness to the chore chart. My friend incorporates a required kind act on her children's weekly chore chart. Her children have the flexibility to decide what they are going to do, but they are responsible for looking for an opportunity and responding. They talk about it over dinner at the end of the week, with my friend helping the younger children unpack how they kind act made them feel, how their sibling felt, and what other ideas they might have for the next week.
3. Gratitude lists during prayer. As my family sits down to dinner, we've each started listing three things we are grateful for before one of us prayers over the meal. It is a great way to reset our attitude if the day has been frustrating and helps us remember what is going right with our day and week. We've found this to be a simple way to encourage ourselves and one another. It would be easy to turn this into a list of things we are grateful about each other some nights to keep it fresh and to keep us thinking of new things.
If you are looking for additional kindness resources, sign up for our email list. We send out a monthly newsletter filled with resources and freebies.
You can follow us on Instagram as The Ruth Experience for additional encouragement, ideas, and camaraderie.
Finally—have you checked out our books, The One Year Daily Acts of Kindness Devotional and 100 Days of Kindness? They tell the story of how our families embarked on a one-year journey of kindness, and include our successes, failures, and the encouragement you need as a family to incorporate kindness into your own life. If you already have one of our books and love them, we'd so appreciate it if you leave a review on Amazon. God redeemed it all in the most incredible ways.
We would love to walk alongside you in encouragement, inspiration and community.
- Julie, Kendra, and Kristin
Intentional kindness - when you get down to it - does not come naturally. It often requires putting someone else first (emotionally, physically, financially), and that can be really HARD. And yet, that is exactly what we are commanded to do in Micah 6:8:
[W]hat does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (ESV)
The question, then, is how do we instill an instinct for kindness in our children? How do we encourage them to set aside their own wants and desires to help someone else? How do we cultivate a mindset of generosity and kindness when much of what we see in the culture around us is self-centered?
When our publisher asked us to submit a seven-day devotional to the YouVersion app specifically devoted to teaching kids kindness, we were excited and yet slightly trepidatious to tackle this subject.
Let's be honest, we're still in the midst of this parenting journey, our kids (and us, frankly) sometimes fall short of the mark. Given this confession, how can we possibly be the "experts" to tell other parents what to do?
But, God.
God is the redeemer of us and our children. He is the redeemer of our best intentions gone astray, and he gives us new days, new tries and new opportunities to get it right. He commands us to be kind and then walks alongside us in the journey.
That's the beauty of learning to be intentionally kind: it is a journey, not a destination. We don't get it right every time, but we apologize when necessary and then try again. We, as parents, are in this for the long haul; we don't quit after a hard day, we regroup, take our failures to God and start the next morning afresh. And we teach our children to do the same.
We've written this devotional with our fellow parents in mind - to act as an encouragement rather than as a guilt-inducer - to cheer you on and equip you with ideas and resources that have worked for us, to share stories that will spark inspiration within your own circles, family and beyond. If you love the 7 day devotional, you'll love our book,
If you haven't discovered the YouVersion app yet, it's an amazing resource filled with tools to support and encourage your entire family's faith journey. We love it, and we are beyond honored and humbled to now be a tiny part of it.
Are you looking for more resources? Have you checked out our books?
Our newest book, the 100 Daily Acts of Friendship for Girls is written specifically for girls aged 8-12 as they navigate friendships in upper elementary and middle school. With a scripture, short story, reflection questions and 50 fun activities to do with you or friends, it's a wonderful way to encourage your daughter, niece, granddaughter, God daughter and her friends to build healthy friendships from an early age.
Julie, Kendra, and Kristin
And our adult friendship devotional, The One Year Daily Acts of Friendship is a perfect compliment to our book for tweens. With a daily scripture, story, and friendship prompt, its encouraging and slightly challenging (in a good way!) as you find, keep, and love your friends.
We've also written two kindness devotionals, The One Year Daily Acts of Kindness and 100 Days of Kindness. They tell the story of how our families embarked on a one-year journey of kindness, and include our successes, failures, and the encouragement you need as a family to incorporate kindness into your own life.
We would love to walk alongside you in encouragement, inspiration, and community. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram as The Ruth Experience or sign up for our monthly newsletter (no spam, ever), here.
We would love to walk alongside you in encouragement, inspiration, and community. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram as The Ruth Experience or sign up for our monthly newsletter (no spam, ever), here.
If you already have one of our books and love them, we'd so appreciate it if you leave a review on Amazon.
We're in this together,
Julie, Kendra, and Kristin
"Did you know that everybody has a bucket, Mom?"
The question came out of nowhere. Still rubbing the sleep and early-morning confusion from my eyes, I huddled back into the warmth of my comforter and turned toward the daughter who had just climbed into bed with me. Looking intently at me—her adult teeth still a little too big for her, the sprinkle of freckles across her nose inviting a smooch, her hair in a wild bedhead tangle—she tried again.
"Everybody has a bucket, and you're either a filler or a dipper."
Ah, now it was starting to make sense. She was talking about Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids (Bucketfilling Books)
by Carol McCloud. In it, the author describes how everyone has an invisible bucket, and that we have the choice to fill other people's through being kind and loving or to "dip" into them by being unkind.The concept is easy for kids to grasp, and it's been a topic of conversation here since that morning that my daughter asked me if I'd read it. After school that day, she asked if I had remembered to be a filler that day and couldn't wait to tell me what she, in turn, had done. "Did you fill a bucket today? I did! I smiled at everyone, and I hugged Jaicie."
I'm a huge book nerd, and my children have started to become that way too. Because kindness is something we want to emphasize, I've been reading through books we owned or borrowed from the library to see if they are worthy of a spot on the bookshelf. With that in mind, I thought I'd share 10 of the books that teach kindness that are kid-approved and mom-approved by our family, in the hope that they might help your family, as well..JPG)
Over the past several years we've realized it was not only important to teach our kids about kindness, but also gratitude and compassion for other people. We understand that this is not something that necessarily comes naturally to any of us, and so intentionally teaching our kids (and ourselves!) has simply become a way of life. Listed below are some resources and ideas that have helped us be more deliberate in teaching our kids about gratitude.
10 ways to teach your children (and yourself!) to be grateful:
We've written two kindness devotionals, The One Year Daily Acts of Kindness and 100 Days of Kindness. They tell the story of how our families embarked on a one-year journey of kindness, and include our successes, failures, and the encouragement you need as a family to incorporate kindness into your own life.
Kendra, Julie and Kristin
An InLinkz Link-up
10 ways to teach your children (and yourself!) to be grateful:
- World Vision catalogs. Not just the Christmas ones, but the other editions they periodically send throughout the year, highlighting what life is like for children around the world. They will have personal stories of children and what life is like for them, including pictures. These articles have been wonderful conversation starters during family dinner time.
- When More is Not Enough: How to Stop Giving your Kids What They Want and Give Them What They Need. This book is an excellent resource for parents on how to practically start teaching your kids how to be grateful. Reading it is a guilt free way to incorporate gratefulness no matter if you've been doing it for awhile or just starting out now.
- Compassion International has a program called Step Into my Shoes that lets your family, small group or church experience what it is like to be poor. This is an interactive activity that allows you to explore what it is like to live like a poor family in a third world country and experience the challenges they face on a daily basis. This is a wonderful teaching tool not only for kids, but adults as well.
- Kids Against Hunger Periodically we have taken our children to a food packing event in our community. It has been another way to educate them about hunger around the world, and ways that we can help. The children also get the opportunity to try the food and watch a video explaining more about how Kids Against Hunger is helping those in need.
- Sole Hope Shoe Cutting Party Sole Hope provides shoes, medical care and education to children and families in Uganda where many children struggle with jiggers, a parasite that burrows into the feet, causing infection and pain. We hosted a shoe cutting party at our house where our friends were able come and help cut out pieces to make shoes, all with things we'd through out anyway (old jeans and milk cartons). This was another event our children were able to be a part of by helping cut, sort, and package the shoes.
- 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. While reading this book by Jen Hatmaker my husband and I decided to eat like the poor around the world and use the opportunity to not only learn ourselves, but to teach our children what it would be like to live as an average person in a third world country does everyday.
- The Verge Network This website has been a great resource for our family, offering free e-books (such as Be the Church), videos, and articles that have encouraged us to step outside of ourselves and offered tips on ways to engage those around us in practical ways.
- Volunteer at a local shelter. We have volunteered several times at a local shelter to serve meals, and most recently leading up to Christmas, we helped with a Kids Hope Shop where underprivileged children could come and shop for Christmas presents for their family members. We were also able to help them pick out and wrap their gifts.
- Writing thank you's and notes of encouragement. This year my family has started a new tradition where each month we write a thank you note to someone who may not get thanked very often and a note of encouragement to someone who may need a little cheer. This has opened up conversations with our kids I did not imagine, everything from talking about the homeless man on the corner to sick kids in my children's classes. While we always end by praying for the person we're writing notes to, this gives my kids a tangible way to see that they can be a small blessing in someone else's day and again teaches them to be grateful for the simple things they have (like health and food).
- Homeless Care Packages. Like many areas around the country, our community has an evident homeless population. Instead of just averting our eyes to the person on the corner, my husband and I wanted to show our kids how we could help. We've taken the initiative to keep water bottles, gift cards and other supplies in our vehicles for anytime we come across a homeless person. If you're looking for ideas of what to offer the homeless in your area Bridging the Gap has a great post on how to create gift bags for the homeless.
All of these ideas are easy ways to help teach our children about being grateful without lecturing or nagging them. They understand because they get to see, experience, and have compassion for others, while also realizing everything they are grateful for in their own lives.
Are you looking for more resources? Have you checked out our books?
Our newest book, One Good Word a Day, offers simple but deeply spiritual meditations that will help readers linger on one word each day so they can identify and reflect on how Jesus as the Word influences their daily lives.
Looking for encouragement in your friendships? Our adult friendship devotional, The One Year Daily Acts of Friendship, includes a daily scripture, story, and friendship prompt. It's encouraging and slightly challenging (in a good way!) in helping you find, keep, and love your friends.
Our devotional for tweens is a great complement to our devotional for women! 100 Daily Acts of Friendship for Girls is written specifically for girls ages 8-12 as they navigate friendships in upper elementary and middle school. With a scripture, short story, reflection questions and 50 fun activities to do with you or friends, it's a wonderful way to encourage your daughter, niece, granddaughter, God daughter and her friends to build healthy friendships from an early age.
We would love to walk alongside you in encouragement, inspiration, and community. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram as The Ruth Experience or sign up for our monthly newsletter (no spam, ever), here.
If you already have one of our books and love them, we'd so appreciate it if you leave a review on Amazon.
We're in this together,
Kendra, Julie and Kristin
This post contains affiliated links. For more information you can read our disclosure policy.
Make A Difference Mondays is a weekly linkup designed to encourage and inspire us to live each day on purpose—making a meaningful difference in someone’s life in even the smallest of ways. Five women regularly co-host this link-up. Read on to learn more about the vision, mission, and how to link up!
Mission: Our mission is to provide a consistent gathering place for like-minded women to build online connections, share inspiration, and provide mutual encouragement and accountability as we seek to live intentionally and make a difference in the lives of those around us.
Vision: Every Monday we invite bloggers to link up any blog posts that encourage women to live life on purpose, including testimonies or goals from your own life, small acts of kindness or service, creative tips or ideas for showing consideration to others — the possibilities are endless. Our objective is to use our God-given time and resources to his glory!
Also, just a heads-up: the Make A Difference Mondays team has created aFacebook community group to stay in touch beyond the blog posts AND we also have a new #MADMlinkup group Pinterest board: Make A Difference Mondays Pinterest Board.
Mission: Our mission is to provide a consistent gathering place for like-minded women to build online connections, share inspiration, and provide mutual encouragement and accountability as we seek to live intentionally and make a difference in the lives of those around us.
Vision: Every Monday we invite bloggers to link up any blog posts that encourage women to live life on purpose, including testimonies or goals from your own life, small acts of kindness or service, creative tips or ideas for showing consideration to others — the possibilities are endless. Our objective is to use our God-given time and resources to his glory!
Also, just a heads-up: the Make A Difference Mondays team has created aFacebook community group to stay in touch beyond the blog posts AND we also have a new #MADMlinkup group Pinterest board: Make A Difference Mondays Pinterest Board.
An InLinkz Link-up
Advent Acts of Kindness - Ideas for Incorporating Kindness into your Christmas Traditions
November 19, 2014
Christmas. This word, this season, so easily becomes overwhelmed with thoughts of the baking, the card-making, the gift-giving, all of the hustle and bustle of too much busyness packed into the mad rush of weeks from the day after Thanksgiving until December 26th. And while no one thing is “bad” or “wrong” in itself, when all piled one on top of the other, I find myself scarcely able to breathe.
Every December, I struggle with how to refocus my family’s attention on Christ, on giving, on thinking of something or someone other than ourselves. I feel like my little light upon the hill begins to waver and weaken rather than shining brighter and stronger during the season of the birth of my Savior.
Until two years ago, when two friends and I decided to fight back against the holiday insanity and joined forces for our first Advent Acts of Kindness.
Our inspiration was found in Mark 12:28-31:
We rotated between community acts (quarters in the laundry mat, cookies for the police department), national acts (Red Cross Mail for Heroes, Toys for Tots), and international acts of kindness (World Vision, International Justice Mission, Heifer International).
As our children helped us deliver items and write cards, we found ourselves talking about Christ, talking about sacrifice, talking about the true meaning of Christmas in our families and amongst ourselves. They delighted in secretly picking out a family whose dinner we paid for in a restaurant, and I watched as their own small lights upon their own small hills sparked to life.
And, truthfully, my eyes focused less on the commercialism of Christmas as I looked for ways to be intentionally kind. Our project was fuel for my own wavering light; it grounded us and allowed us to enjoy the cookies and parties and gifts without losing our focus -- Christ.
My family will be doing celebrating our Third Annual Advent Acts of Kindness this Christmas season, and we invite you to join us we celebrate Advent in a way that serves Christ and others in a tangible, physical way.
Need ideas? Here are some links:
Every December, I struggle with how to refocus my family’s attention on Christ, on giving, on thinking of something or someone other than ourselves. I feel like my little light upon the hill begins to waver and weaken rather than shining brighter and stronger during the season of the birth of my Savior.Until two years ago, when two friends and I decided to fight back against the holiday insanity and joined forces for our first Advent Acts of Kindness.
Our inspiration was found in Mark 12:28-31:
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”We celebrated Advent (24 days, plus our Christmas Finale) with a daily kind act -- most of which included our children’s direct participation -- but this could easily be scaled back to a weekly kind act or any number that fits your life and your schedule.
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
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| Kristin's girls with coats to donate to One Warm Coat |
As our children helped us deliver items and write cards, we found ourselves talking about Christ, talking about sacrifice, talking about the true meaning of Christmas in our families and amongst ourselves. They delighted in secretly picking out a family whose dinner we paid for in a restaurant, and I watched as their own small lights upon their own small hills sparked to life.
And, truthfully, my eyes focused less on the commercialism of Christmas as I looked for ways to be intentionally kind. Our project was fuel for my own wavering light; it grounded us and allowed us to enjoy the cookies and parties and gifts without losing our focus -- Christ.
My family will be doing celebrating our Third Annual Advent Acts of Kindness this Christmas season, and we invite you to join us we celebrate Advent in a way that serves Christ and others in a tangible, physical way.
 |
| Don't forget to print off our cute cards! :) |
- Here is our free printable (you can print in either color or black-and-white, your choice) to go along with your Advent Acts!
- Here's what we've done in past years: Check out our recap posts (pictures and everything!) from our first year and our second year.
- Other sites with resources: the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, 30 Days of Service Challenge, 52 Ideas for Random Acts of Kindness, Being Kind Counts, 30 Days of Kindness, Our Advent Countdown and 32 Random Acts of Kindness.
Are you looking for more kindness resources? Have you checked out our books?Our newest book, 100 Daily Acts of Friendship for Girls, is written specifically for girls ages 8-12 as they navigate friendships in upper elementary and middle school. With a scripture, short story, reflection questions and 50 fun activities to do with you or friends, it's a wonderful way to encourage your daughter, niece, granddaughter, God daughter and her friends to build healthy friendships from an early age.
Julie, Kendra, and Kristin
And our adult friendship devotional, The One Year Daily Acts of Friendship is a perfect compliment to our book for tweens. With a daily scripture, story, and friendship prompt, its encouraging and slightly challenging (in a good way!) as you find, keep, and love your friends.
We've also written two kindness devotionals, The One Year Daily Acts of Kindness and 100 Days of Kindness. They tell the story of how our families embarked on a one-year journey of kindness, and include our successes, failures, and the encouragement you need as a family to incorporate kindness into your own life.
We would love to walk alongside you in encouragement, inspiration, and community. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram as The Ruth Experience or sign up for our monthly newsletter (no spam, ever), here.
We would love to walk alongside you in encouragement, inspiration, and community. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram as The Ruth Experience or sign up for our monthly newsletter (no spam, ever), here.
If you already have one of our books and love them, we'd so appreciate it if you leave a review on Amazon.
We're in this together,
Julie, Kendra, and Kristin
We are once again linking up with the lovely Holley Gerth, Jennifer Dukes Lee and the SDG Sisterhood.
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