40acts: Week 5

The last week has seen me and the girls being stuck inside the house a little more than usual thanks to all of us being under the weather and so it has felt like another week of ‘40acts lite’ focusing predominantly on the green challenges. This week I’ve been quite thankful for social media which has made it possible to complete some of the daily challenges whilst being stuck at home.

The challenges for this week have been:

• Act 23: Share, pray, like – using social media as a prompt for prayer
• Act 24: Chocs away! – handing out free chocolate
• Act 25: Serve the server – taking time to focus on those who serve us
• Act 26: Bear hug – sharing a hug or two
• Act 27: Widen your circle – open up your social circle to include others
• Act 28: Roll your sleeves up – meeting a need in a practical way

The first of this week’s acts – prayer – is definitely something that can be easily done without having to leave the house. I liked the idea of using my social media newsfeeds as providing prompts for prayer – taking time to read more fully and pausing for a moment to pray for any needs that I saw instead of just skimming and scrolling as I often do. Taking a moment to reflect on the needs of others and pause to pray for them made quite a difference to my day – with all the recent bouts of illness and sleep deprivation, I’d started my day feeling quite grumpy and focusing on others really helped to take my mind off my own gripes. I think this is definitely something I should be doing more often.

I loved the idea of handing out free chocolate and with #chocolatetuesday (the hashtag for act 24) being a day when I would normally be at toddler group this would have been a fun act to do. Sophie was unwell though and we were stuck at home unable to go to toddler group so I had to content myself with doing this one by proxy – hubby took some chocolate into work on my behalf to hand out to everyone in the office.

Getting out of the house on Wednesday was much-needed and whilst I always say ‘hello’ and ‘how are you?’ to the lollipop lady when I take Jessica to preschool, this time I stopped for a longer chat which was nice. It was only when I got back home that I realised that I still don’t know her name so I will try to find out next time!

I’ve been sharing quite a few virtual hugs across social media over this past week which fits in well with Act 26 and of course my girls and hubby get lots of hugs too! I’m a fairly tactile person and love giving hugs but am also very conscious that not everyone likes to be hugged so sometimes giving a virtual hug is the best way forward here.

I tried to make sure I chatted to a few people I don’t usually chat to on social media for Act 27 and then the final act for the week involved helping a lady who was struggling to feed her baby grandson whilst stopping her toddler granddaughter from running off – just lifting the little girl back into a chair was enough to help. I’ve experienced quite a few similar moments when I feel like I need two pairs of arms and two pairs of eyes when out and about on my own with my girls and someone stopping to offer a brief moment of assistance can make such a difference.

Have you been taking part in 40acts? I’d love to hear how you’ve been getting on.