The Giving Project: May

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If you are new to "The Giving Project", this is a project started on my blog to encourage giving in all types of forms to bless other people.  In life, we are often either "givers" or "takers", and this project encourages all of us to become "givers."

The Giving Projects that we've done already include (click on the links for more information):

January:  Food
February: Reaching out to someone for Valentine's Day
March-April: Giving a compliment to a stranger

If you participated last month, please leave a comment and let us know what you did (or said).  For myself, I realized how hard it can be to give a compliment to a stranger.  Because I am (mostly) an introvert, I don't often seek out opportunities to converse with strangers.  Yet every week at Micah's preschool, I would see this woman who runs a daycare.  Every day, twice a day, she pulls her van up to the preschool, unloads 6 kids under 4 years old, and drops off one child at the preschool.  She has the kids all walk together and wait patiently by the gate, and it looks exhausting. Yet this lady always seems to have energy, and she is able to get these kids in and out of their car seats day after day to do this.  I was surprised at the courage I had to muster just to talk to this woman!  I walked by her as she was loading the kids back into her van, and I said, "I just want you to know that I think you are amazing!"  She stopped and smiled and said, "Thank you, that means a lot to me.  I've been doing this for a long time."  I talked with her for a few minutes and told her that every week I see her take all the kids back and forth to school, and she does such a great job with them.  She said she really appreciated me telling her what I thought, and we went on our ways.  I hope I can gather the courage to talk to more strangers and give them compliments, because I do think it makes such a HUGE difference!

May's project is this:  Give the gift of a letter.

A few months ago I was trying to sleep and kept thinking of my grandmother.  I got up at midnight and wrote her a letter, telling her how much she meant to me and how proud I was to be her grand-daughter. She called me a few days later, crying, telling me how much that letter meant to her and how it came at the perfect time.  We don't always tell people in our lives how much we value them and love them; then when they are gone, we regret it.

Take the step to hand-write a letter to someone in your family, or someone close to you, letting them know why you love them.

This may sound similar to February's challenge (to reach out to someone for Valentine's Day), but that challenge was more about recognizing someone who may not normally celebrate Valentine's Day. It may sound like last month's project - giving someone a compliment.  But this is more personal.

A letter is a gift that often means more than anything material that you could ever give.  So take a few minutes, get out that old pen and lined notebook paper, and write a letter to someone you love.  This is a gift with an eternal value!  If you decide to do this, please leave a comment and let me know.   I look forward to reading more about your Giving Projects!