My mom, like many mothers, signed up for Facebook in the past year. (My dad did too!) And yes, we're friends. I love getting little encouraging messages from her on my wall - it's always nice to hear from her, especially now that we're several hundred miles away from each other. There's one thing a little different about my mom's Facebook page. She's always encouraged acts of random kindness and decided to use her wall as a venue to spread that message.
Basically, she encourages her friends to do acts of random kindness and post it on her wall. Then, others can be inspired to do acts of their own. She also encourages people to post when they've seen someone else do an act of kindness. It's been really great to see how many people have been posting in the past few weeks. Some examples:
"I was at Thompson's Hardware this morning and Bill, on of the cashiers, had a big smile on as he read a note in his hand. Seems it was a thank you note. Apparently Bill was working when someone stopped by from the interstate with some hysterical kid in the car. Their seat belt had cinched up so tight they could hardly breathe, and the more they resisted the belt, the tighter it got. Mom came into the store begging for someone to help them. Bill went out and got everything squared away and they went on their way. A week later Bill gets a card of thanks from the 8 yo saying thank you for helping me, signed, "the screaming kid who got caught in the seatbelt...." No money was exchanged:-)"
"My friend Kristen A. was at a drive thru getting coffee and when she arrived to the window to pay, she was informed the car before her had paid for her order. So she decided to pass it on and pay for the person behind her. Extra luck for that person- there was no one behind them!"
"Kindness was shared with us tonight when Cory & I were at dinner with friends in Omaha. We had a good time eating a huge BBQ dinner and enjoying each other’s’ company. When it was time to pay the bill our se...rver told us the manager paid it for us. What?! We asked. It turned out that earlier this evening when the manager and his wife were out to dinner at a different restaurant, a stranger paid for their meal! So they decided to find “some really nice people” and buy their dinner. We are still so surprised! We are looking forward to paying it forward beyond what we normally do. How and what that will be remains to be seen. Help us spread it!"
"So here is my act of kindness...I took a tag from the angel tree - clothes for a 12 year old. I thought it would be easy since I love clothes shopping."
My mom herself went to the store and when purchasing her items, also bought a gift card. When she had paid, she turned around to the person behind her, a local college student, and gave her the gift card. She said the girl was so excited and then got tears in her eyes. They exchanged a hug and then each went on their way. A few days after posting that, she got a response from one of her friends:
"Okay, went to the store on thursday before work, bought two gift cards but no one was shopping near by, 8 cashiers with no customers, so today stopped by Goodwill and gave one to a grandma shopping for her grandkids and gave the other to the Fedex delivery guy who had just slid on Back mountain. I will do it again this weekend."
I'm so incredibly proud of my mom. This all comes to her naturally. She's such an amazingly wonderful and giving person... and one awesome mom! So don't forget to do an ARK this season. And hey, keep spreading it into the new year!
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