Get your wheels turning!

So I don't know about everybody else but I think the biggest obstacle to getting involved and serving in the community is not the desire to act but knowing how to get involved. We know there are terrible things happening to good people all around us. There is no shortage of diverse hardships they we face who are in need in this world. Yet somehow it can be hard to figure out how to jump in and help. Or is it just me? We have our little world with it's comfort zones and it can be really hard to step out of it. While this is a big obstacle another one is TIME, there is a serious shortage of it. There are SO MANY things vying for our time, it can be hard to prioritize, I know I am not telling you anything new her ;). There is always room though for little acts of kindness, We just have to start thinking that way and it will become a part of who we are....now stepping down from my soap box ;)

I know I think BIG which is great but I can also loose focus on the small things sometimes. What I am trying to say is; if you aren't solving world hunger don't be discouraged and think your not helping. Good deeds have a chain reaction. I know this a commercial but it illustrates the point I am trying to make.


Truthfully I think that if everyone or nearly everyone was focused on helping others World hunger would solve itself.

Today  I want to share some inspiration from two websites I found, one is an organization and the other a blog posting.

Do something.org is focused on teens and while I don't agree with everything on the site it is a good resource for ideas.

This picture is from a post about how on her birthday she did 26 nice things for others. Some really great ideas here! For example she took soda, chips & salsa and gum etc to a local fire fighters station...how easy is that? Such a great idea!!! (they ended up giving her a tour, she was just planning on dropping it off) She also... "purchased a book of stamps while at the post office and asked the clerk to give them to a random customer with a card full of my best wishes." How nice to be the person who got that book of stamps and nice card, that would totally brighten my day! To see what else she did check out the full post.

Okay so here's the deal I am going to stop here BECAUSE I want you to take some time and check out these links. I want to hear your thoughts after you have looked at them...deal? 

Young family photo's and service project

This is why I started The SIP project, for putting together posts like this. Which hopefully encourages everyone who reads this to realize we all have time for doing a little good. It's easy to set the bar too high when it comes to doing good, so high we can't reach it and get discouraged and never do much of anything. Small acts of kindness is where is starts. "The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness." The SIP project is a way for people who participate in it to be pushed a little out of their comfort zones in finding meaningful ways to serve. I am pretty sure I can say with real certainty that all who have participated come away feeling empowered knowing they can make a difference. Alright I will step off my soap box...

Let me introduce the super awesome Young family. We were in a bit of a rush to get their family pictures taken before their oldest son Josh left to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Canada. It wasn't an ideal spot but for being last minute I am really happy with how they turned out. It was really cold too, they were troopers though. There little guy like most two year olds  hardly sat still...no really. As you can see this first picture really captures that. 

And he's off....

 

Here is what the Young family did in their own words. "On December 23rd our family headed out right after a huge snow storm with another family (The Colsons) we had invited and made our way to the Beehive Home in Edgewood New Mexico.  The Beehive Home is a retirement center for the elderly in our town.  Between the two families we had enough children to play the parts of Mary, Joseph, an angel, three wise men, and two shepherds.  Larry Colson (father) would have played the piano but one of the residents of the home really wanted to be involved, so she played while Larry directed.  Shawn Young (father of the Youngs) was the narrator and read the account of Jesus' birth from Luke in the King James version of the Bible.  The two mothers and the children sang the Christmas songs that went along with each part of the story.  Our goal was to share our love of the Savior and our joy of the Christmas season with the residents.  Afterward, we were able to pass out gifts from another group that were not able to make it to the home earlier in the week because of a huge blizzard.  Women from the Edgewood Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had made beautiful lap quilts for each of wonderful people living there.  They had also made and filled stockings with things like lotion and socks. Passing these out to the residents gave all of us an opportunity (especially the children) to be able to talk to the men and the women and wish them a Merry Christmas.  This was a wonderful time to get to know them give them the opportunity to share little pieces of their history with us. 

Our family chose to serve at the Beehive Home for different reasons. First, because it is pretty close to our home and we wanted to do something that could be on going. We plan to visit the home once a month.  Also, we have never lived close to grandparents and this gives our children an opportunity to be around elderly people and have "adopted" grandparents.  Sometimes older people can be intimidating to children and we would like ours to be comfortable around those who they may not think they have anything in common with.  

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve. We are so happy that this project pushed us out of our seats and made us think about ways that our family can contribute.  Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives, we forget that we have things that we can give and in return we are blessed."  


                                                     Photos from their service project.

Here is what the Young family did in their own words. "On December 23rd our family headed out right after a huge snow storm with another family (The Colsons) we had invited and made our way to the Beehive Home in Edgewood New Mexico.  The Beehive Home is a retirement center for the elderly in our town.  Between the two families we had enough children to play the parts of Mary, Joseph, an angel, three wise men, and two shepherds.  Larry Colson (father) would have played the piano but one of the residents of the home really wanted to be involved, so she played while Larry directed.  Shawn Young (father of the Youngs) was the narrator and read the account of Jesus' birth from Luke in the King James version of the Bible.  The two mothers and the children sang the Christmas songs that went along with each part of the story.  Our goal was to share our love of the Savior and our joy of the Christmas season with the residents.  Afterward, we were able to pass out gifts from another group that were not able to make it to the home earlier in the week because of a huge blizzard.  Women from the Edgewood Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had made beautiful lap quilts for each of wonderful people living there.  They had also made and filled stockings with things like lotion and socks. Passing these out to the residents gave all of us an opportunity (especially the children) to be able to talk to the men and the women and wish them a Merry Christmas.  This was a wonderful time to get to know them give them the opportunity to share little pieces of their history with us.

Our family chose to serve at the Beehive Home for different reasons. First, because it is pretty close to our home and we wanted to do something that could be on going. We plan to visit the home once a month.  Also, we have never lived close to grandparents and this gives our children an opportunity to be around elderly people and have "adopted" grandparents.  Sometimes older people can be intimidating to children and we would like ours to be comfortable around those who they may not think they have anything in common with. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve. We are so happy that this project pushed us out of our seats and made us think about ways that our family can contribute.  Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives, we forget that we have things that we can give and in return we are blessed."   

If you wonder why there are only pictures of two of their kids it's because it got too cold to do the rest. I will being taking the rest of their kids pictures soon.

Thanks for stopping by! I am flying by the seat of my pants you are welcome to join the ride! If you would like to participate in The SIP project or have any ideas for me I hope you feel comfortable leaving your thoughts via commenting or e-mail. I love hearing from you :) Every comment makes my day.