Have you ever been the recipient of a random act of kindness?
Maybe it was somebody paying for your coffee, a surprise batch of homemade cookies waiting for you at work, or an encouraging note from an old friend. No matter how big or how small, when people go out of their way to show you kindness, it makes your day!
And the best part? It feels contagious. Often, someone randomly doing something kind for you inspires you to do something kind for someone else! It is the “pay it forward” mentality that keeps the kindness spreading.
At CCC, we take random acts of kindness pretty seriously. About 12 years ago, we started the “You’ve Been Gifted” tradition where every December we encouraged our church to blanket the community with small acts of service. Our hope was if every member did just two kind things during December, then we would shower our community with 10,000 acts of kindness and generosity.
Since then, we changed the name to “Just Because” and printed little cards with words of encouragement that people can give out. Every year this community goes above and beyond, and we are always astounded by the stories we hear. Each story reminds us of a few simple truths:
- Everyone is fighting a silent battle; you never know how much a simple act of kindness will mean to them.
- Everyone has inherent worth and value, and one way to remind people of that is by doing something nice for them!
We also know that the need for kindness is present year-round, especially in the past few months. During the summer, we brought back the Just Because initiative and even collected $140,000 so we could bless our neighbors in big ways! So far, with the Just Because fund, we have been able to buy school supplies for local teachers, help coaches and their teams, and support The Edge Sports and Arts Academy in Twinsburg! We continue to use that fund to support individual families as needs due to the pandemic arise.
So, will you join us? Help us remind our neighbors that they are valued and loved, no matter what struggles they are facing. Pick up a stack of Just Because cards during a weekend service and get started!