Kindness

I've been reading this really wonderful book, "Love as a way of life" by Gary Chapman, the same author of "The five love languages". Both are really great books and are those types of books to keep around and read over again when you just need that little reminder. Anyways, the book asks that you as an individual remember certain acts of kindness you did or saw. I love the following excerpt from the book...
Try to visualize every person you meet as: Valuable beyond measure, Gifted, Born for a unique role in life, Capable of receiving and reciprocating true love. (Essentially the way God views each of us, hmmmm, sounds familiar:)

So here are a few acts of kindness I did lately:
-I saw a homeless man in the parking lot of Wal-Mart and instead of just handing him a few dollars, I parked my car and walked over to him to ask what specifically I could do to help. Did he need anything from inside the store, did he just need money? What was his situation? So he said that he and his wife and kids were trying to get to Texas and his wife was expecting another baby and they just needed to raise enough money to get there. Now I have a tendency from working with drug attics to be skeptical of stories but reminded myself that no matter what his story, he needed kindness and that was the point. Anyone willing to beg for money is always in need of help, always.
-As I got off the machine I was using at the gym, I saw an elderly woman was waiting for one to open up. When I walked past her I told her mine was open and then asked if she knew how to use it. She said she didn't, so I offered her help to get on it and program something for her to do. She seemed really grateful and her thanks was more kindness than I deserved.
-Ollie and I were grabbing a slice of pizza at Costco and I noticed an older man had just gotten a hot dog and was walking around by himself looking for somewhere to sit. I invited him to sit across from us and boy was I glad. I got to hear all sorts of stories from his life, how his wife had died of breast cancer, how he thought he'd never love again but then found another amazing woman, that both their families combined made up 13 kids, that he was visiting his son from Florida, and the list goes on. When we parted, he just said, "I am so pleased to meet you". It was enough to make my eyes fill with tears because he was just so sincere.

And here's a list of acts of kindness I saw:
-My sister-in-law Meg called me to ask if we wanted a babysitter to go out. She didn't wait for me to call her, she just called and offered and was genuinely happy to do it.
-My sweet husband tells me every day how beautiful I am and does about a million small things to make me know he loves me. I can call to tell him the smallest, dumbest thing of my day and he always is way into it, like I'm the funniest girl ever. He's never like, hey I'm busy, and this doesn't really concern me, can we talk later? Never has he said that to me.
-My sweet sister Laura came by a little while ago when I was sick, and watched Ollie, made us both dinner, and cleaned the house cause she knew it was driving me nuts that I couldn't do it. She also watches Ollie as often as I need her.
-Our home teachers asked if we needed anything and for once we were like, yeah, we need to go to the temple, and they said, we're here, let us know what time. What a blessing.
-When I was going to my sister Leah's house, I missed my flight and was really upset. Leah called my mom to tell her what happened and my mom called me right away and her and my dad were like, you are getting on a flight, whatever it takes! They didn't rub in the fact that I had missed my flight, which was dumb and totally my fault, they just wanted me to be happy. As I'm on the phone with my mom, my dad's like, head to Southwest, it's already taken care of. This is one of the many amazing acts of kindness my parents are capable of.
-Over Christmas break we all got strep throat and at one point I was feeling so bad I just burst into tears and Ollie saw and put both his arms around me and said, "tis ok" in his sweet little baby voice even though he was sick too and had a horrible temperature.
The list goes on, trust me, but I just love to remember how many blessings we can receive and give, it really does amaze me. And I definitely need to work harder, and I will.