Random Acts

Our neighbor was diagnosed with cancer this past summer and during the treatment process, her husband abandoned her and moved out. He owns a landscaping company, so their yard boasts of MANY beautiful trees. In the fall, however, these trees produce a gazillion leaves. So our family purchased a bunch of bags and raked and bagged leaves for 3 hours to serve her. She came half way through our surprise to find leaf mountains scattered across her yard. I thought her jaw was going to fall off as she rolled down the window and exclaimed, "What on earth are you people doing!?!"

Not only were we able to serve her in a very practical way, but we also got to connect, chat, and encourage her as we worked. We were also so grateful to work alongside our children as we modeled a servants heart for them. It was quite the workout physically, but the spiritual impact Christ left behind seemed invaluable.

As an extra bonus, it was really fun to see what an impact 'one small act of kindness' made on the entire neighborhood. For the next week, many 'strangers' stopped their cars in the middle of the street to ask if we'd be their neighbors. Most of the time, their reaction was 'priceless' as we were able to explain that our family had been praying about kind things to do for our community and that leaf raking was one item on the list.

When God laid it on our hearts to rake the neighbors leaves, our initial reaction felt like God was asking us to build an ark. But glory to Him, on this day we heard and listened, and we were truly blessed to see how Christ impacted our entire neighborhood through some leaves.