When our children were young, we would remind them to be nice to others. I would use the same quote my mother would say to me, “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” Of course, children will be children.

acts-of-kindness-day 3

As you can imagine, our five children didn’t always get along with each other. Unfortunately, they didn’t demonstrate many intentional acts of kindness. There were times when our children would say or do things to intentionally cause pain to their siblings.

Intentional Acts of Kindness is the third post in a series based on the 7 Day Intentional Living Experiment, leading a life of significance.

Well, our two youngest sons and youngest daughter didn’t always see eye to eye; they would go back and forth with other. They would find ways to irritate each other. Our youngest daughter felt it was her moral responsibility to share with us everything her siblings did, good or bad. Her siblings didn’t appreciate her honesty. To convince their sister not be as forthright with her knowledge, our sons would take their frustration out on her dolls.

One of the rules in our house “was no eating in their rooms.” Our middle son was known to break the “no eating” rule. Every week when he cleaned his room, we would find evidence of food in his room. Of course, he would be disciplined.

Our youngest daughter had planted the evidence in his room…

Eventually, they out grew of these behaviors and learned to value each other’s differences. They are now best friends, who go out of their way to lift each other up.

The Elevator Principle states “we can lift people up or take people down in our relationships” Maxwell, 2004). When our children were young, their focus was to take each other down. Now, they spend their time helping each other.

People are the most valuable resource in every organization. As leaders, our goal is to build up members of our organization. Why? Because, we all want to be valued and appreciated. We must be an intentional “lifter.” How do we take others to a higher level?

  1. Commit to encourage others daily
  2. Take intentional steps daily to help others
  3. Create a positive environment where you are

Remember life is not a dress rehearsal. Every day, we have a choice to life people up or take them down.

You can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want in life”
– Zig Ziglar

All leaders should strive to model the Elevator Principle and lift people to their highest level. We all have the ability to add value to others.

Thomas S. Monson said, “When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be.” Don’t let another day go by without lifting others. Commit intentional acts of kindness to lead the change we want to see.

What intentional act of kindness will you commit today to lift others?

Try the 7 Day Intentional Living Experiment and comment about your Day 3 intentional act of kindness below!

Your friend,
Kim

  • Hi Kim
    A very telling tale …
    I am old, when I was young I prayed for wisdom daily. Only to learn that wisdom does not fall from the sky it comes with life experiences. This brought back memories of my own children and my trials and tribulations as I sought to raise them and guide them. looking back I can see now by what you wrote that often times the issues of personal petty attacks only served as a distraction to our greater cause to love one another. The Bible tells us that as we grow older we will put away these childish things and so what you have done is validated the truth in the bible with your children’s adult behavior …What you have written is now wisdom you share.
    and so a second thing we learn out of this is that the key of a successful life is your intent to share freely what we learn to help others. . thanks for sharing this wisdom …I never thought that random thoughts of kindness could be a habit if we choose to make every day. what simple profound idea… thank you…

    Kind Regards
    Dave Outlaw

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    About the author

    I'm Kim, your Educational Leadership Guide. I equip educational leaders with research-based and experientially learned educational leadership principles and best practices to promote student success.


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