Do something beautiful

I'd love to hear of some of the random acts of kindness that people have tried out from that site.

In the meantime, here's one that I know works with friends.

It's actually borrowed from our friends in Albania who, either out of the neccessity of not being able to afford much phone credit (despite all having mobiles!?) or from being quite inventive, or both, use an unanswered ring in a simple but effective way.

Whilst sometimes ringing and hanging up straight away might be used to signal "I'm leaving home now" for a pre-arranged meeting, it is often used simply to indicate "I'm thinking about you right now."

What a simple and powerful way to make someone's day, having previously told them what it means. Where so often (in my experience) a single ring is used as a nag for "why haven't you replied to my txt?", instead it becomes something to cheer up, to beam a thought or to send an e-hug.

Too sentimental? Have you gone soft Matt? Try it, you'll see!

Wouldn't it be good if... (2)

OK, so you're wondering where the rest of the "Wouldn't it be good if" list went. Me too.
And this blog is a vain attempt at trying to get back on topic, and end up with a list of top ten survival tips.
So, here it is: "Wouldn't it be good if we could take the Angels and Mortals scheme to the next level, beyond just encouraging words."
(This was bulletin board based anonymous posting scheme where young people were paired with another to be their angel and send them regular notes and pray for them)

It struck me, if we're thinking about how to have a good day, and cope with all that something like school throws at you - rather than ask the question "How can I make my day better?", perhaps one that you could ask instead is "How could I make someone elses day better?"

Then I stumbled on a site called random acts of kindness. And in fact, as Laura's idea, we shall be exploring this on Friday nights at 628.

Now, we're not much nearer the top ten list, but this could brighten up many a day. My daughters school have been trialling something called "playground buddies" for a while now.
This involves having a designated bench where you can go if you have no-one to talk to or play with. Then a playground buddy will come and sit with you.

To go even further than the random acts of kindness is to do them anonymously (yes you will have to be quite creative not to be found out!) - then you truly are putting other people first!

Galatians 5:22-23
1 Thessalonians 5:14-18

Wouldn't it be good if...

Well, here begins a small series of wouldn't it be good ifs.

In my youthwork travels, its become apparent that it would be good to have a top ten of school survival tips. Only problem is, I couldn't think of ten, so it didn't make it onto the bakery.
In fact, as I'm prone to distraction, (this must be a side-effect of a creative mind...) I thought a better place to start might be with what often goes wrong. To make sure the outcome of this is positive, we'll keep it realistic and not completely obvious - just the sort of things that some people need pointed out...!

So, here's the start of a list of how to guarantee a bad day:

1. Make sure you have argument first thing with your mum over something like ironing your shirt.
2. Skip breakfast. That way you can make sure you feel really crabby by mid morning.
3. Forget to call for your mate on the way to school OR miss the bus OR miss the train OR better still, get on the wrong bus or train, preferably in the opposite direction. This will get you points for upsetting your friend and being hopelessly late.
4. Ensure you have left your homework to the last minute so that you have to stay up very late getting it done, or facing the wrath of Mrs Gibbons the biology teacher. Staying up late will help with the memory and general doziness to carry out number 3.


With the comments facility on the blog, I'm sure we'd very quickly have more than ten to be able to pick a top 10 from.