Kindness Matters

My mom gave me some vinyl lettering that says "Kindness Matters" for my classroom. Little did she know last week when she gave that to me what was in store for me this week...

I was listening to a conference talk from October's conference on my way home from work the other day (did you know conference was available as a podcast?? I love it). It was President Monson and he said that while being interviewed by the Church News just prior to his birthday the reporter asked what he would consider the ideal gift that members worldwide could give to him. He replied, “Find someone who is having a hard time or is ill or lonely, and do something for him or her.” You can read the talk in its entirety here. Anyway, he said that he then received hundreds of letters from church members worldwide who have fulfilled his wish.

Later that night I read a really interesting blog post on my friend Heidi's blog (you can read that in its entirety here) that made me really think about how we mold our character. Anyway, between the two I got thinking about my cute class. I spend 8 hours a day with 25 of the most incredible kids in the world. I often think of the great responsibility I have to care for and influence these kids who are not mine. I hope and pray regularly that I will help them to be smarter (since that's why they pay me the big bucks you know) when they leave my class...but I also hope that I have influenced their character in a positive way. I would really hope as a parent (if I were one, ya know) that the person that my child spends that much time with would be helping them to develop good character traits.

So, after thinking this over, I decided to challenge my class to do one kind thing for someone each day. We talked about little things they could do like help their brother clean up a mess or help someone who dropped their backpack to pick up their things. Every day three people share their kind deeds with the class. I love the way it has helped my class to focus on what they can do to help others and build each other up. I am literally stunned at how much of a difference this has made in my classroom. My kids were already incredibly kind, but I see them being even kinder and more considerate of others. It's amazing.

This may seem like it has nothing to do with anything, but it does...just stick with me here for a minute. Last night my ward had its Annual Spaghetti Dinner & Auction to raise money for our Young Men and Young Women. Because I'm in the Young Women's Presidency, I was involved in the whole process. I was absolutely amazed at my ward members generosity! It was amazing to see! Not only that, but there were many people who came that are not "regulars" at church. I witnessed many people in my ward go out of their comfort zone to introduce themselves to people they didn't know and make them feel welcome. I literally felt humbled to watch these people whom I am lucky enough to live near and associate with donate hundreds of dollars worth of items and then spend hundreds of dollars buying other people's donations, all the while extending their hand of fellowship to those around them.

What have I learned this week??

Kindness Matters