Kindness Always Counts But Doesn’t Need a Broadcast

Today, I ask a tough question. What is kindness about?

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

What is kindness about?

Is it about doing a good deed or is it about doing a good deed that is visible to others or in the public eye? The 24/7 access to the internet and social media makes it very tempting to “show” others acts of kindness. I ask, however, if it is necessary to broadcast your “good works” or acts of “kindness”

Over the years my husband and I have done the following “good deeds” that we never made public:

1. We gave $5,000.00 (in a lump sum) to our high school to buy new tubas. No, we did not have a tuba player, just a student in the band.
2. We bought new soccer goals and nets for our soccer team because they were needed. Yes, we had a soccer player. The coaches didn’t know it was our family who donated the nets/goals.
3. We entered our neighbor’s house on Christmas Eve when they were at Midnight Christmas Mass and left presents for all 7 family members because the parents didn’t have the money to buy presents for their five children. Every child should have a gift on Christmas. Everyone got something fun and something they needed (clothes, etc.).
4. For years, we took gift tags off trees at two churches and in the mall to buy gifts children had asked for but did not have hope of receiving. We returned wrapped presents on time for those children to have a happy holiday.
5. We gave money to a family whose house was burned down.
6. We donated hundreds of handmade fabric masks during the pandemic to a local technical college for the students and staff to use. And, then, donated again, enough for the entire staff of an elementary school to use. Over 500 triple-layer masks were donated.
7. We bought sleds for our local elementary school so the students could enjoy sledding during recess. We did this several years in a row.
8. We bought chalk and playground balls so that the local schoolchildren could enjoy recess in the spring. We also did this several years in a row.

Some of these acts of kindness or generosity, if you will, have never been known to anyone other…