Just wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
I have a challenge for you…
One of the things my family enjoys is identifying another family or individual in need and being a “Secret Santa”. We always enjoy going to the store and loading up a cart with food and gifts and then sneaking up to our Secret Santa family’s house…carefully placing the items on the front porch…. ring the door bell…..AND RUN LIKE HECK!
We always have such a warm feeling when we do this. I think one of the reasons is not too many years ago, we were the recipients of a “Secret Santa”. I remember how loved I felt in a time that was quite depressing.
So here is my challenge for you…
Now matter how good or bad this year has been for you… go and do something nice for someone today. If you have extra to spare this year, run to the store today and do an impromptu “Secret Santa”. You can do some type of service like go sing carols to a neighbor or at retirement home. Or you can just invite someone who will be alone this Christmas to your home to celebrate with you.
Just a simple act of kindness can go a long way.
Please feel free to comment below and let me know what you did today to help someone else
Merry Christmas,
Joel
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Joel,
The past seven years my family and I have blessed a family in need. A couple weeks ago we went shopping and bought coats, shoes and clothing for all the kids in this family. We purchased toys for all the kids, bought groceries, diapers and formula for their 4 week old baby girl. It is Christmas for us when we see their smiling faces. My prayer is that the Lord will continually bless us to be a blessing.
Blessings to All,
Dee
Hey Joel,
I concur, we have been greatly blessed many times doing exactly what you described. This year things have been especially tight, but still my dear wife knitted the most darling winter hats that we put into a box with stuff from other family members for a family in need.
It truly is more blessed to give than to receive.
Merry Christmas,
Kent
No matter how hurting a family may be, they still have each other. To me, it is the person who is alone during this time who feels it the most. Just imagine if this were you. And groceries, money, toys, material things aren’t necessary to bless that person, just a word of hello, a handshake, a greeting is all it takes.
Hi! Joel,
This something lovely from you and your family.I always believe not matter the situation we can make a different.I´m still in debt but I´m happy I help someboby as I believe it is more blessed to give than to recieve.Thanks the Lord next month I´ll be out of debt and I will be able to give more.It make my sleep in great peace.
Merry Christmas to you and your family and I wish you in 2011 a year full of blessings!
My wife and I took a card from christmas tree in Walmart, where a 10 year old said he needed shoes and would like a board game. We filled his wish, gave us a good feeling.
Merry Christmas Joel-You seem like one of the good guys on the internet! I listened to your webinar on the business of making Webinars and was very impressed with how you do it, etc. Unfortunately, it has been a very challenging year for me & yet extremely rewarding at the same time-(just not monetarily!).
I have been blessed with some gifts thru this year & feel it’s very important to ‘give forward’. I have accepted YOUR CHALLENGE by giving a homeless family (Mom & grown son) my coffee product, (that in my opinion heals people & is considered a SUPER FOOD) for the last week now & i think it is actually helping the Mom lower her blood pressure as she hasn’t needed to use her medication this whole week! Very cool stuff. Keep up the good work & some day I will have the opp to buy your product.
ALL THE BEST-Dave Jewett
on my way now………………………………………..
Thanks Joel for your wishes, I understand what you are saying and I try to do it all through the year even though I myself only have one meal a day as the rest of my pension goes to rent and bills. As I am on my own I do not have family so your messages are really appreciated.
As yet I have not been able to get any income from the net but with good thoughts and a good bit of help from the fellow above I may get some where.
I have plenty of contacts but no autoresponder to send them to and being on dial up does not allow you the ability to send out more that a few emails at a time let alone answering them. So if you could put a word in for me it would be appreciated and any one else that reads this.
I do not want much for myself but I know a line of children that desperately need help and that’s what I want to make money for; to get it established before my time comes.
Thanks again for your Christmas wishes and I send the same to you all over there.
from Down Under.
I’ve generally been skeptical of the idea that people should be nicer at Christmas, just because it’s, well… Christmas! My stance has always been that kindness is something that is cultivated within at every occasion; karma will a go long way in rewarding us for it.
But the flip side of things has it that there’s some sort of benefit in people waking up to being nicer, just because it’s Christmas, and that is: the general energy, the positive vibes given off, these feel so good to those individuals typically unaccustomed to being in tune to the feeling.
And that’s when they realise there’s always someone worse off than them, so they smile knowing that their situations are not as dire as they tend to negatively make them out to be.
Not that feeling better because you’re not doing as badly as someone else is much of a “victory”, since in the end, someone is still suffering. But every little bit helps, if raises the energetic level in tune with kindness… such as it happens at Christmas.
And so we get these acts of kindness, even in a random way. It’s beautiful, and brings a moment’s respite from the suffering to those who need it
In the end, we all need a smile: the poor folks who realise that someone DOES care, and ourselves for doing something so noble as you have done.
A merry, merry Christmas to you all.
Blessings,
-Josh Harris
It is SUCH a great feeling to give in this way. I raised my kids to see christmas as a spirit more than a commercial enterprise, in part because we couldn’t afford anything! Even without requiring material things it is hard to explain the feeling of recieving something dropped outside your door – you just don’t know who to thank so all that gratitude goes to God and it feels like the whole universe is out to help you.
The truth is human beings have a natural love for each other.
thanks Joel,
for the gratitude tip this season of loving one another. My wife is a High School teacher in the Philippines, on Christmas eve one of her former students called wanting to borrow some money to buy her family gifts. So we invited them to join us for our family Christmas. it turned out to be a joyous time for all.
merry Christmas to all this holiday season.
Joe Johnson
Joel,
I love this idea. We’ve done similar things from time to time but not to that extent. Last year though, instead of giving to each other (we have a large family, 5 kids, 2 grand kids) we decided to take the money we would have spent and send it to buy a well and a goat in a 3 world country. We did draw names for the first time and only gave a gift to one other person in the family.