30 Intentional Acts of Blessing #30

Last night I was telling my husband about my new 30 Random Acts of Kindness idea in the 30 days leading up to my 30th Birthday.

As I was describing my plan to him and asking for his input I realized as soon as the words "Intentional Random Acts of Kindness" came out of my mouth that the head of the semantics department (or is it division?) at our house would soon be correcting my blunder. After all, how can something be intentionally random?

Sure enough, we got sidetracked on this statement for a while. Rob is very literal, so he takes things at face value and I tend to think that stating the general idea of something is sufficient. So, while I was mulling over this snafu while completing my first intentional random act of kindness I realized Rob was right. I am intentionally planning to bless other people. In fact, I made a list last night of possible ways to bless others in the next 30 days. It's very unlike me to think so far in advance!

So, here you go, just a day after I unveiled my new project, let me introduce you to the new and improved (and semantically correct!):

I knew I wouldn't have very much time to seek out an opportunity to bless someone today since I would be busy almost the entire day between dropping off kids, babysitting for a friend, spending 6+ hours at work and attending a Bible study with a few friends of mine later in the evening. 

Literally, the only free time I have is the time I'm spending to write this post. 

So, I decided to bless someone within the plans I already had today. While babysitting for a friend I opted to go above and beyond and clean her half bath and laundry room, clean the counters, wash the table and vacuum her floors. Vacuuming was the best part because I was able to round up all of her kids to help "Bless Mommy" by picking up the toys and things on the floor as I was going through with the vacuum. Then, when she went to pay me babysitting vouchers (I have a group of friends that swap vouchers instead of cash to make sure everyone's doing their fair share of giving and taking in the childcare department), I told her about my desire to intentionally bless people for the next 30 days and I asked her to please bless me, by letting me bless her by encouraging her keep her vouchers this time around. 

She paid me with a big smile and a hug instead. I liked that!

I've had a couple of people say that they might like to "play" along with me. Feel free to do this yourself. It would make me ecstatic to see this adventure bless people beyond what I'm able to do in my little sphere of influence. You can use some of my ideas or make up your own. Remember it doesn't always take a lot of time or a lot of money bless others, but the reward in return is amazing. If you do choose to play along please leave a comment or a link to your own blog (if you're a blogger) and let me know what you did. 

Feel free to snag this graphic or make up your own. Or go without for that matter! And remember you can start this project anytime. I happen to be doing it in the days leaning up to my 30th Birthday, but you don't need an excuse. You can do it just because... well, because it's a blessing to bless others, whether randomly or intentionally!