In light of the recent ‘tea bag’ protests happening in our communities tomorrow, those of us at the Soul Food Revolution put our heads together and came up with a revolt of our own! We’re inviting you to join! Here it is: This week’s top ten ways to make the world a more positive place, one person at a time! And by the way…feel free to add to the top ten list! Just make a comment to this post below. The best suggestions will be added to our next list!
Top Ten Things to Do Instead of ‘Drinking Tea’:
Creative Commons License photo credit: Dan4th
10. Open the door for someone. The easiest of gestures can also be viewed as the most appreciated.
9. Clean out your closet! Donate that dress you haven’t worn in 10 years to your local clothing shelter.
8. After you mow your lawn, mow your neighbor’s too! The gift of time is immeasurable.
7. When you grab some lunch at the drive through today, pay for the car behind you. Better yet wait for that tour bus to pull through!
6. Go out of your way to grab the shopping cart that is in the middle of the parking lot at the supermarket. You’ll save someone a dent and get some exercise!
5. Go to the bank, take a $10 bill with you, and exchange it for a roll of quarters. Then head to the nearest laundry mat and randomly pay for people’s laundry.
4. Call a young couple that has a child or children and offer to babysit for them tonight. They could use a night off, or at least a couple of hours.
Creative Commons License photo credit: gina pina
3. That wall you’re trying to redecorate….. get some canvas and allow your kids or grandkids to create a painting for it. You will never know how much it will mean to them….I promise. (only one rule, you can’t tell them what to paint!)
2. Ask your child’s or grandchild’s teacher if you could read to their class this week. They’ll love it!
1. Forward this to EVERYONE on your mailing list! Share this website. Remember, we are trying to start a revolution here, but we can’t do it without you!
Tags: change, courage, kindness, list, revolution, tea party
Help friends with home projects that they’ve been slowly grinding on, it helps keep everyone happy… especially the boss.
How about volunteering to be a “Big brother” or “Big sister?” Or volunteering to be a court appointed special advocate (CASA) for kids in foster care. CASA helps make sure that the kids in foster care aren’t being lost in the system; they help advocate for the kids in court and also are involved with visiting the kids on a regular basis, helping with any needs that they might have. It is a great program. Also, and this goes without saying, but the need for foster parents is immeasurable. Sadly, there are too many kids in the foster care system and not enough homes.
To take it another direction, how about volunteering to coach a city league sport. There are tons of kids that want to play sports, but sadly very few who will step up and coach. There is a strong need for volunteers in these leagues. You don’t have to be an expert, you just have to make the time.
I really like Chris’ suggestion. Kids sports are such a great way to reach out and make an impact on kids’ lives.
And why only focus on kids? There are millions of lonely senior citizens at rest homes that would love to have someone to simply talk to! I’ve taken much joy this week out of talking to my elderly neighbors, they seem to appreciate the extra company. What did it cost me? 30 minutes of my free time. Piece of cake.
First of all, thank you Mitch for loving your “family” enough to start a revolution of love that will give our chicken-tendency the courage to love all members of the family, even those members who are tough to love—even those who we label “terrorists”. We all have the ability to terrorize ourselves and others—to hold others hostage to our demands—to have our way.
Mitch, you posed the question “What is family?” in a recent post entitled “Blood Family”. Towards the end of your post you concluded with “My family is never ending. My family is everyone. My family is you.”
This is nothing but a WOW! moment if people will let that soak into their very soul.
Result: Then I will treat everyone as my family. I will treat you like my father, mother, sister, or brother. I will be available for you in your good times and bad times. I will defend and help you fight against the enemies of your soul like depression, hate, and unforgiveness.
I see this revolution as much as an anti-religion revolution as an anti-anything else revolution. Religion truly is “the opium of the masses”, as one of our atheist family members has noted. I was addicted to this deadly drug for many years. I was raised up around and in religion—specifically the Christian Religion. But I have been fortunate enough to have come to an understanding that any religion only serves to bind you to a list of “do’s and don’ts” rather than just allowing you to be who you are—a child of God, part of the human family, all fathered by God.
My atheist friends hang with me here—yes, I believe you as well are a child of God. You may never have believed that or you may have disowned Him as your Father. Your belief or unbelief is irrelevant on this matter—He is your Father. As your Father, He loves you without the condition of your even believing that He exists and you have no control over how much He loves you and you cannot act or believe in a way that will diminish or increase that love. Because of the Father’s unconditional love, I now have unconditional love for you even if you remain an atheist, no more no less than a fellow believer—you see, you are family—I cannot not love you—you are my brothers and sisters. The generous and charitable heart that most of you have is innately within you because you were made in the image of God. The compassion you have for your fellow humans is because that is in your DNA as a child of God.
My religious friends, once you realize that you are loved unconditionally and that you don’t need Religion telling you how to live your life, you will have the freedom to bask in the love of your Father God. Now, as any good father will do, you will be disciplined, but the discipline of a loving father is always for correctional purposes never to punish or discipline because you crossed the father but to move you under His protection and security. Don’t buy into the garbage that Religion peddles, which in essence says “God loves you unconditionally unless you don’t love Him and then He will torture you.” That is a traditional misinterpretation of the Jewish and Christian “Bible”, born of a mistranslation of the metaphorical and colorful visual language of the Eastern culture, bias, fear, blindness, and the need and greed of religious leaders to control the minds and money of the masses.
Back to family and tying that in with your statement, Mitch, that “My family is everyone”, imagine the transformation that would occur on this planet if we realized that we are all one big family with the same father. Imagine how we would treat each other. Imagine that there would have been no greed which has put the planet into the financial mess we find ourselves in now.
Now tie that into the post “Top Ten Things To Do Instead Of Drinking Tea”.
Instead of drinking tea, drink in the unconditional love of your Father God. Please know that you are loved no matter your past—no matter your present—no matter your future. I can say this because as a disciple of the Christ and His teachings, I believe that “God is Love”,“Love never fails”, and “Love does not keep a record of evil”.
Now, go out into the world and love your family—even those tea-drinkers who would better serve their fellow humans by shifting their passionate focus from taxes to teaching others that they are loved, from politics to purity of purpose, from fanfare to—-well, FAMILY!!!
Amazing! Not clear for me, how offen you updating your soulfoodrevolution.com.
Dirnov
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Todd O., I appreciated your mention of elderly neighbors. I would like to piggy-back on your suggestion. Make friends with your elderly neighbors and maybe most especially those who are single at this stage of their life, either by choice or because their mate has died. Todd O. you mentioned talking to them which is great and probably there is nothing more encouraging to them then someone who cares enough to just visit with them. A suggestion beyond that would be to help them with chores or maintenance around their house. Also, get telephone numbers of their children or near relatives so that you can call them if you feel they need to know something about their loved one. In the last years of my Mom’s life, she had a neighbor who mowed her lawn and did chores and maintenance for her. I was working full-time at the time and could not always be there for her on a moment’s notice. This neighbor also would call me if he felt she was needing medical attention but she didn’t think she did or didn’t want to “bother” me with it. After my Mom died and I got her house sold, I gave her neighbor a $500 gift certificate to Lowe’s out of appreciation of how he watched over my Mom. The point here is that you not only are serving your elderly neighbor, but you are serving their children as well who are comforted by knowing someone is watching out for their elderly loved one.
Don, great suggestion! I am trying to teach my own kids to respect their elders by using people in our neighborhood as an example. I’m ready to step that up and teach them about service for the elderly as well, helping w/ their yardwork, etc. Exciting possibilities ahead.
My 88 year old grandmother lives in New Hampshire, in the woods, by herself. Luckily, we have a good friends there who live down the road from her and cared for her last September when she fell ill. These people are part of our family now because of all their help through that tough time.
How about when you are in line at your local grocery store, and you have a basket full of food, and the person behind you had a few things. Why don’t you go ahead and let then go in front of you. Also while your at it….tell the checker you appreciate them for what they do. I’m sure they don’t get to see the happiest of people during the day
:0)
Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.
Dirnov