chain reaction

I was at GEMS this evening. (It’s a young girls group at a local church. I volunteered to be a counselor a few years back and it turns out that I’m as mature as the girls in the group so it’s a good fit!) I have the privilege of leading the devotions almost every time we meet. Tonight’s devotion (which I can’t take any credit for because I didn’t write it), was about chain reactions. It’s along the lines of a topic that I’ve touched on before, but it’s been a while and it’s worth repeating!

This year in our GEMS program, we talked a lot about blessing others. Tonight’s devotion was about blessing someone and how that can lead to a chain reaction of that person blessing someone else and so on and so forth.

I likened it to the “Pay It Forward” Movement (that used to happen frequently at Starbucks in the drive-thru line) and none of the girls really knew what I was talking about (or their attention span was super short tonight. Could have been both! I’m not sure.) So I explained that when someone does something nice for you and you don’t know how to repay them for it, if they tell you to pay it forward that means to do a kind deed for someone else. (I saw a couple of light bulbs turn on with that. Progress!)

Now, I don’t know exactly how guys work because I’ve never been one, but for most of the women I know, when something kind is said to them or done for them, the feeling they get is so fulfilling that they want to share it. Compliment them on their shoes or hair, bring them a coffee or flowers, even remember them on their birthday (I’m utterly the worst at this) or send a random encouraging text and you have made their day!

I’ve randomly complimented people I don’t know in stores before and they are so taken aback by it that they hardly know how to respond! That reaction right there tells me that it doesn’t happen near enough in this world. If complimenting strangers feels weird to you (I’m a bit strange myself so I’m cool with that), it’s fine to stick with the people you know. They probably need to hear it too! Even your kids, y’all. Build them up like crazy! It’s a great way to be an example to them.

So today’s challenge (and actually the “Rest of Your Life” Challenge): find someone to bless and bless them with a kind word, compliment, encouragement, a cupcake, coffee, flowers from your garden (people: everything is blooming in California right now!) or one of this funny memes on your phone that you can now send via text to people! That’s my favorite! ❤️

From what I remember, it takes about a month for a habit to develop. I think this would be the best habit to develop over the next month. Just sayin’!

By the way: your hair looks great today and you have a beautiful smile!

Love,
KC