Our family is SO excited about the #LightTheWorld campaign that kicks off tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it bringing our family a more meaningful Christmas season. It gives you daily prompts of ways to be more like Jesus and things that you can DO – I love that!
We have written each day’s focus on our family calendar and can’t wait to dive in. It all starts with the Worldwide Day of Service tomorrow. And then each day after that. If you would like a printable calendar of all the days and prompts, you can find it here: Printable #LightTheWorld calendar. You can also find a simplified kid version from A Year of FHE here: I Can Light the World.
You can also find information about all the days at Mormon.org – and when you click on each day, there’s a video specific to that day’s focus. I just love this! We’ll be starting our days with a video each morning.
Visit the Lonely
Visiting the Lonely isn’t hard – you’re probably doing it without realizing it. Just have a spirit of Christ as you look to love and include others. I’ve got kiddos in middle and jr high, so this video really relates to us – –
I’m excited to share with you ideas for Day 9, which is: “Jesus Visited the Lonely and So Can You”. We try to make it a focus as a family to visit those that might be lonely, be friends to those that might need one, look for people that might need to be included. For example, on the first day of school we assign the kids to each meet someone they don’t know, and report back with their name and something fun about them. Or on candygram day, we challenge them to send a candygram to not only their friends, but to think of someone in their class that might not get any candygrams and to send one to that person. We’ve had families over to dinner. We have stopped by and helped those in need. And we’ve stopped by and just visited with people – not everyone needs service done, but everyone appreciates a few minutes of visiting.
This year for Day 9: Visit the Lonely, we plan on taking treat boxes to several elderly couples in our church, to help them know that they are loved and appreciated. This doesn’t have to be stressful or hard or time consuming! At first I thought we’d bake homemade treats, but to be more practical, I just grabbed a candle and some candy from the store – super easy! And we put together our kits and have them all ready to go and waiting. It’s going to be a fun family activity! I love that the kids can get to know these couples a little better, and enjoy spreading Light while they do so.
Ways to Visit the Lonely
This is what we’re going to do as a family, but there are SO many other ideas – do what will work for you!! Some other great ideas:
–Sit by someone new on the bus or at lunch (as in the video).
–Identify someone who might need a friend and learn a fun fact about them.
–Think of someone who will be alone for Christmas, and invite him or her to attend a church service with you on Christmas Day.
–Think of someone or a family who will be alone for Christmas, and invite them to brunch on Christmas Eve.
–Visit a nursing home. (Did you know that studies show that 60 percent of those living in a nursing home never get visitors during their stay – break those stats)
–Have a family over for a fun holiday movie and popcorn.
OTHER WAYS TO PARTICIPATE
- Better understand Jesus Christ’s teachings about reaching out to the lonely by reading this message or this one.
- Send a friendly text to someone who could use a boost. No one come to mind? Pray and ask God for someone that needs an uplifting text.
- Send a letter or message to someone who is currently living away from home.
- Identify someone in your neighborhood you have never met. Take him or her a Christmas treat and introduce yourself.
- At work, school, or church, sit by a new person and get to know him or her.
- Visit JustServe.org for more ways to #LIGHTtheWORLD in your community (U.S. and Canada only).
Chelsea @ Life With My Littles says
Love these ideas! We need to reach out to people who are lonely ESPECIALLY around Christmas!