We’ve all heard the term, “Random Acts of Violence”. It’s on the news nearly nightly. A few years ago I came across an article in the newspaper about how different our world would be if we started reporting “Random Acts of Kindness” instead and even more importantly, if we focused on doing random acts of kindness to other people. Today I was the recipient of an act of kindness and it brought that old newspaper article back into my mind. And even though it was a simple gesture, it made my day.
I got up early today so I could run and do some major, MAJOR grocery shopping while my husband was still home with the kids. Since we’ve been on Spring Break for the past week and have been traveling and out of town, our house shelves were bare. I cleaned out everything in the fridge before we left so I wouldn’t have old food to deal with when we got back.
So, I’ll admit that I was one of “those” people who spends hours or more in the store loading up the cart to nearly overflowing so that I won’t have to go shopping again for awhile. I was one of “those” people who really should have made a couple of trips to the car but was determined to fit everything in to one cart. But I’m also one of “those” people who other people don’t like to stand behind in line at a store.
How random acts of kindness made my day
Today I actually felt really bad that I would be holding people up as I checked out. I had tried to go early enough so there wouldn’t be a lot of people shopping but by the time I had been there two hours or more, people were up and at it. As I checked out, I watched several people come to my line, see the amount in my cart and on the belt, and then roll around to another line and I don’t blame them. I probably would have done the same thing. There was the guy in the line next to me who made a comment to his wife about how much he hates “people like that” (whatever that means. People who feed their kids? People who eat? I don’t know). And I was working up a major sweat trying to unload my cart so I could finish as quickly as possible.
Here is a picture of the full cart just so you get an idea. 😉
Then, the checker stops working and just stares at me waiting for me to bring him my cart to fill up with items he has scanned. (Not sure why he couldn’t get a different cart.) Problem is, because of my amazing packing skills, I still had a full cart of groceries.
That’s when the random act of kindness came in. A man showed up in my line behind me with only two items. I would have loved to let him go in front but the checker had already started. (Me feeling even more guilty) but instead of wheeling his cart to another line, he takes his two items out of his cart and offers it to me to fill up. He then takes the time to help me unload my cart and is super friendly the entire time. He could have easily gone to a different line and been out in a matter of seconds.
He made small talk about how he hopes I’m shopping for the month and when I tell him I have 4 boys to feed at home he talks to me about his 6 boys who are all grown but scattered around the world and how he remembered how much food they went through.
As I’m almost ready to leave I apologize again for taking so long and his reply made my day, “It’s okay. I’m just glad to see that Wonder Woman still exists.”
Simple. A simple act of kindness made my entire day. And so today as you are going throughout the day, watch for simple ways that you can help someone out because you never know if that simple act will make someone’s day.
Have you ever been a recipient of random acts of kindness? How did it make you feel?
Sweet story…I’m so glad he helped you. Your story touches me as it actually had me thinking the entire time of my dad. It sounds like something he would have done….helped a young mom and also talked about his kids to her. I would love to have something like that happen to me but it would probably have me crying by the time I got to the car! Maybe it’s a good reminder to me to put forth random acts of kindness…just like my dad would…and like that man did.
Sounds like your dad was amazing. 🙂 It made me realize that I need to slow down a bit and look for opportunities to help people. It really was such a simple thing he did but it made it so I left the store with a smile, instead of bordering on tears like I often leave the store.
I love that you shared this experience! I can’t wait to share this with my boys. It is a life-lesson to know how to constantly be looking for ways to serve others.
It was definitely a great lesson to me, being the recipient of it. Sometimes I am in too big of a rush running here and there and trying to get things done that I forget to look for people to help.
People like that help keep the world from getting too dark and scary. I think the Wonder Woman comment would have caused me to burst into tears!
I completely agree! I can’t even watch the news anymore because of all of the negative things I see there. I loved that he was so patient and if I had been shopping with my kids, I know it would have made me cry since those trips are always overwhelming and people can be so mean at times.
One of the very wise sayings in the Book of Ecclesiastes (of the Bible prophets) is:
“Cast thy bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days…”
Which means: Always be ready to do a good turn even if you don’t expect a reward for it. For, some day, you will surely find your reward waiting for you.
God likes kindness/charity very much.
It says in another verse that the destruction of Sedom came because they did not perform kindness.
The prophet – Ezekiel 16,49