gratitude
It's our 9th year of 25 Days of Christmas Kindness. Nine years of doing one kind act each day from December 1-25. Nine years of feeling the joy of helping another person; nine years of failing miserably, at times. Nine years of trying to change our children's hearts from focusing on "me, me, me"—only to realize that we ourselves are just as much in need of a heart change.
Each year has been a new adventure, but this year, we're trying something new.
We're creating a 25 Days of Kindness group in Facebook. Why should you join?
Because we'll be sharing ideas every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday throughout December, hosting Facebook lives and offering giveaways!
It'll be a positive place to share some Christmas cheer and we'd love for you to join us!
Click here to request to join the group.
We'll also occasionally post on our social media platforms (Facebook or Instagram).
Looking for ideas? Here's are some of the things we've done over the years, complete with handy photos and links: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
All too often, we see hard things in the world and we feel paralyzed, like the problem is simply too big or that our small efforts won’t amount to anything. But as a mom, I want to show my kids that that’s not true, that kindness matters and that we can feel empowered to do something or to help others. This Christmas season, that's my prayer for you, too—that you feel empowered and loved by a God who sees and knows you, and who wants to make his love and kindness known to the world, too—through you.
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,
Julie, Kendra, and Kristin
It's our 6th year of Advent Acts of Kindness: Six years of doing one kind act each day from December 1-25. Six years of trying to change our children's hearts from focusing on "me, me, me"--only to realize that we ourselves are just as much in need of a heart change. All too often, we see hard things in the world and we feel paralyzed, like the problem is simply too big or that our small efforts won’t amount to anything. But as a mom, I want to show my kids that that’s not true, that kindness matters and that we can feel empowered to do something or to help others.
This Christmas season, that's my prayer for you, too--that you feel empowered and loved by a God who sees and knows you, and who wants to make his love and kindness known to the world, too--through you.
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.
Kristin, Julie, and Kendra
Each year has been a new adventure, but this year, we're trying something new.
We're creating a 25 Days of Kindness group in Facebook. Why should you join?
Because we'll be sharing ideas every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday throughout December, hosting Facebook lives and offering giveaways!
Click here to request to join the group.
We'll also occasionally post on our social media platforms Facebook or Instagram.
Looking for ideas? Here's are some of the things we've done over the years, complete with handy photos and links: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
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,
Kristin, Julie, and Kendra
The other day, Kyle asked jokingly why my friend Julie and I argue—or what I like to simply call banter—so much.
“Because she is safe for me,” I responded without thinking. And it’s true. Together, through our mutual love and respect for one another, we are allowed to dream big and ponder ideas that sometimes feel too heavy to bear alone. We've logged years of vulnerable and trusted conversations, so much so, that bantering honestly feels safe with her like few other people I know.
She is a safety net for me.
This morning, I picked up my youngest child, only three, who stretched out her arms for comfort after a perceived slight. As I whispered tender words in her ear to soothe her wounded heart, I realized I am a safety net for her.
Later, as I was cleaning up dishes and cutting vegetables for supper, I wondered: Do I do this often enough? How can I be better at loving those around me, unconditionally?
“Because she is safe for me,” I responded without thinking. And it’s true. Together, through our mutual love and respect for one another, we are allowed to dream big and ponder ideas that sometimes feel too heavy to bear alone. We've logged years of vulnerable and trusted conversations, so much so, that bantering honestly feels safe with her like few other people I know.
She is a safety net for me.
This morning, I picked up my youngest child, only three, who stretched out her arms for comfort after a perceived slight. As I whispered tender words in her ear to soothe her wounded heart, I realized I am a safety net for her.
Later, as I was cleaning up dishes and cutting vegetables for supper, I wondered: Do I do this often enough? How can I be better at loving those around me, unconditionally?
Wow, it's now been five years since we began incorporating kind acts into our families’ holiday activities—acts that have now weaved themselves into family traditions, right alongside decorating the tree and hanging stockings.Sometimes the simplest of ideas can produce the most profound change in us and in those around us, in ways we’d never have known when we’d first begun. For us, these acts of kindness have become so much more than just something we do during the Christmas season. They have become the catalyst that has shifted the way that we see people, needs, and even the way we see God.
We now notice so much more of the pain and suffering that is occurring in our world—but instead of quickly averting our eyes or ignoring it, we walk towards the pain, extending out our hands with what may seem on the surface to be one small act of kindness, but turns into so much more. An altered perspective; a lesson for our children or ourselves. A willingness to be vulnerable even when it hurts. And, on the very best of days, a small glimpse of the way in which God's grace can bring light to the dark places in this world.
This year it feels almost more important than it ever has to extend kindness to others around us. To hold out a hand of love in the things that we say, the things we do, and the things that we give away. This year is a year to combat hate, remembering that we are all created in the image of our God and therefore have value, that we are all worthy of love and grace and understanding.
This year, more than ever, let’s be the hands and feet of a Savior who came to bring Good News to those who would need it most. Us. Our neighbors. The stranger. The foreigner. The hurting. The lost.
The question we are challenging ourselves with this year is: Who can I show love to today?
And we accomplish this by doing one small act, every day in the month of December, leading right up to Christmas Day. Won’t you join us once again friends? We’d love to see how far God’s love and kindness will spread this holiday season!
Each year has been a new adventure, but this year, we're trying something new.
We're creating a 25 Days of Kindness group in Facebook. Why should you join?
Because we'll be sharing ideas every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday throughout December, hosting Facebook lives and offering giveaways!
It'll be a positive place to share some Christmas cheer and we'd love for you to join us!
Click here to request to join the group.
We'll also occasionally post on our social media platforms (Facebook or Instagram).
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
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| A tea party with Scarlet and Shelby, their dolls |
But after a minute, I realized that it wasn't her, after all. Leaving the office, I hurried to my older girls' room and found 4-year-old Noelle huddled in her small bed, coughing and crying inconsolably. Hearing the barky seal cough characteristic of croup, I felt dread even as I brushed aside my husband's worried exclamations and headed to the bathroom to turn on the shower. Gathering her in my arms, I carried Noelle into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub, rocking her gently. After a few minutes, when she failed to improve and seemed panicky about breathing, we decided that Tim would bring her in to the hospital to get checked out.
It was an unexpected twist to our night yet, on its own, it wouldn't have been that memorable. It was only afterward, when things fell apart, that I started to feel exasperated with life:
I was scrolling through my Facebook feed the other day when a headline along the side caught my eye: "Does growing up in a religious family make you MEAN? Christian and Muslim children found to be less altruistic than the offspring of atheists." Immediately, my heart sank. Less altruistic? More likely to deal out harsh punishments for minor infractions? That was the message I got as I read the study detailed in the news story. It was disheartening, to say the least.
And I wondered: As a mom, how do I teach my children a better way? How do regular people like you and I show our kids that kindness matters?
A few years ago, Julie, Kendra and I met with those same questions on our hearts. At the time, we all had young children, and were trying to figure out how to balance the giving and getting parts of Christmas. How could we refocus on others during the Christmas season, rather than focusing on an ever-expanding Christmas List for Santa?
And I wondered: As a mom, how do I teach my children a better way? How do regular people like you and I show our kids that kindness matters? A few years ago, Julie, Kendra and I met with those same questions on our hearts. At the time, we all had young children, and were trying to figure out how to balance the giving and getting parts of Christmas. How could we refocus on others during the Christmas season, rather than focusing on an ever-expanding Christmas List for Santa?
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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
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