I love when at points throughout my day I am given a nudge to stop and take in a moment, a message, a presence. It reminds me that there is great goodness in our lives if we choose to pause and drink it in.
Guideposts Outreach does this for me each morning through the OurPrayer Daily Scripture & Reflection Newsletter. I look at the inspiring words under “A Time to Think” and “A Time to Act” right away. They provide a quick fueling and a challenge for my day. They also comfort me that I can do almost anything if I put my energy and attitude in the right places and reassure me that God is right there with me.
What gives you these nudges? How about receiving a letter or email from a friend, new or old, who simply wants to check in with you? Or encountering someone who lets you in line ahead of them or offers you a compliment? Or seeing a good deed or an unsolicited act of kindness? God is in each of these actions.
As author and minister Jack Hayford writes, “In God’s wisdom, He frequently chooses to meet our needs by showing His love toward us through the hands and hearts of others.” I could not agree more. I need these nudges to help me stay on track, to make the most of my day though the reminders of others’ acts of kindness and generosity.
We recently featured a video of a gentleman who each Wednesday offers haircuts and shaves to the homeless in Hartford, Connecticut. For 25 years, Joe the Barber, as he calls himself, has set up a chair in a city park. His clients come there to be cared for by this generous man. It is a powerful and touching story that I will remember always.
The message Joe the Barber shares is one my father often expressed: There is so much more to giving than to receiving. Doing what we can throughout our day to offer God’s goodness through our actions can have manifold benefits—to those receiving our goodness, to ourselves and to those who might witness our actions and then be inspired to carry them forward.
I’ll leave you with another inspiring quote, this one from an unknown author: “Through this toilsome world, alas! Once and only once I pass; if a kindness I may show, if a good deed I may do to a suffering man, let me do it while I can. No delay, for it is plain I shall not pass this way again.”
