During the holiday season, we come in touch with a lot of people attending school programs, community events, and shopping. The holidays is also a time when some people find themselves very lonely because they are away from family.
Today I’m going to start off our conversation with six ways to bless a complete stranger during the holidays. I’ll do the first six and then I want to hear your ideas!
1) Smile. This one is simple. When you’re in a crowd, or walking somewhere, catch people’s eye and simply smile. A smile gives encouragement without saying a single word.
2) Offer to help. Hold the door, offer to put a grocery cart away for a single mom who has just transferred her groceries to her car, join your new neighbor shoveling their driveway one day.
3) Pick up the tab. Buy the cup of coffee for the person behind you in the drive-thru of your favorite coffee shop. Buy the meal of a complete stranger at a restaurant.
4) Bless the homeless. Make lunch sacks of peanut butter sandwiches, fruit, and some Christmas cookies and give them away to homeless men and women you see on the streets. If you go to a restaurant, ask for a take home bag when your food is brought to you. Put half of your entrée in the bag and ask for “to go” silverware and a napkin. On your way home, ask God to show you someone on the street you could give your meal to.
5) Be nice. Offer a kind word and a kind tone to any customer service people you deal with during the holiday season…even if you’re frustrated, speak with respect and kindness.
6) Say thanks to the troops. There are thousands of men and women away from their family for the holidays. It only takes a minute to say thanks. You can do so by email HERE.
What additional ideas do you have?
That is a good list! One more thing I thought of was: Call, send a card to or visit someone who can not get out much such as an elderly person from church.
I just wanted to let you know how God works. I read your blog yesterday, then while at dinner something reminded me of it so I told the table about it. Then had completely forgotten about it and on the way home at the freeway on-ramp was a man holding a sign and my husband said oh, we forgot our leftovers! I was so bummed. My parents, who went to dinner with us, were in the car in front of us and had brought left overs home for themselves but remembered the story when they saw him. They gave it to him and since we were behind them we got to see his reaction. He opened it up just like it was a present and proceeded to CHOW DOWN! We asked our 3 year old daughter if she saw it and explained the situation to her and she said "that's called sharing". We were so blessed!
Oh, this is soooooo neat! Thank you for sharing!
Another idea I got from a friend – when you're checking out at the grocery store, buy a small bag of M&Ms and then give them to the cashier.