Planning An Acts Of Service Advent Calendar

Advent calendars have been around for generations and began with Bible verses behind each door. They have changed in meaning over the years, adding chocolate, candy or small gifts behind each door. These little surprises have kept us excited to get up in the morning and see what might be waiting for us.

In addition to my traditional Advent calendar, this year I've decided to do an Acts of Service Advent calendar as well. It's not anything fancy - just a printed-out December calendar from the computer. It's the ideas on each day, though, that I pray will have more of an impact on the people around me than any piece of chocolate could.

For the entire month of December, I am planning a different act of Christian love on each day until Christmas. It's easy to say this in November, but I'm praying that I will have the determination and perseverance to keep up with it, showing family, friends and strangers alike how important this season is to believers.

So what can you put on an Acts of Service Advent calendar? I've listed several ideas that you can pick and choose from if you decide to make one of your own. It makes me smile to think of how many lives can be touched in these final days of 2016 when we're purposeful in our service to others.

Ideas for acts of service:
* Bake two loaves of bread or cake and give one to a widow or shut in.
* Tape quarters to a vending machine.
* Buy a coffee for the car behind you in line at the drive-through.
* Send Christmas cards for injured soldiers to a military hospital.
* Take cupcakes or cookies to work.
* Leave donuts for your favorite bank teller, hair dresser or mechanic.
* Write a thank you note to a Titus older woman in your life.
* Hide a little money in the toy aisle at the dollar store.
* Make a donation in your favorite pet lover's name to the Humane Society.
* Pay strangers' overdue book fines at the library.
* Put together care packages for your local homeless shelter.
* Leave sticky notes with some great Christmas Scriptures on public bathroom mirrors.
* Offer to babysit while a busy mom goes shopping.
* Organize a cookie exchange and save some back to give to a local soup kitchen.
* Place a Christmas-themed tract in your shopping cart as you're leaving the store.
* Send emails or texts to someone you haven't spoken to in ages just to say hi and Merry Christmas.
* Gather up the youth of your church and find a volunteer opportunity in your town.
* Choose a woman you don't know very well, invite her for coffee and compare holiday plans.
* Give your mail carrier a special thank-you gift for delivering all those packages.
* Take children's activity books from the dollar store to the hospital waiting rooms.
* Tie up a gift bag of Christmas treats and hang them from a neighbor's from door knob.
* Get to church early and leave notes or gifts for the Sunday School teachers.
* Send a friend or family member an old Christmas picture and tell them why that memory is still so special.
* Deliver flowers or plants to a local nursing home or retirement center.
* Inconspicuously leave candy canes at the checkout as you're running errands.
* Visit some of the shut ins from your church and take goodies with you.

What can you think of to add?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet...
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee...
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit...
Read more