The Perfect Surprise

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Colossians 3:12

See, even the Bible says kindness is important!!!   I think we are onto something here ;)

I have been taking a class at my church for the past 7 weeks, and it was recently brought up how easy it is to get caught up in the cruelty of our society today.  Normally, we hear about and see the bad things far more than the good things.  We often forget to "love thy neighbor" and rather we just "love thy self" (yes, I made that part up).  But it's true, right?  We go through our everyday lives thinking, without even realizing it, about how we are going to get ahead in our own lives.  How we can make more money, lose that extra 5 pounds, buy a new car, get that promotion.  There is always SOMETHING.  And once you do accomplish that goal, you move on to the next one because the one is never enough.  You may get the raise you've been waiting on and it may give you a sense of temporary satisfaction, but for how long? And there you are, back to the feeling of emptiness.  Focusing on helping others and doing acts of kindess fills you up in a different sort of way, that usually gives you a different end result - or so I have learned.

Today's Starfish

I went to dinner with my friend John (here's your shoutout!!!) tonight to my favorite restaurant, Granite City.  Before I went to dinner, I knew what I wanted to do for my Starfish today and I just hoped it would work out like I wanted!  As we were eating our meal, John and I kept our eyes peeled for a table of two to receive my kindness for the day.  Finally, we spotted an older couple (probably in their mid 70s) on the other side of the restaurant.  When our server came to offer us dessert, I politely declined but ordered a delicious dessert for the table across the room.  I wanted it to be anonymous and since we were on the other side of the room, I knew they wouldn't know it was from me.  We did stay til the couple received their treat and it just filled my heart to see them enjoying the gigantic cookie and ice cream together.  It made me think of my own grandparents and how tickled they would be if they received a free dessert from some stranger at a restaurant.