Random Acts of Kindness

Earlier this week, Aimee was telling me about a random act of kindness that occurred in her life. She was in the drive thru line at Chic-fil-a for breakfast. When she went to pay, the lady told her that the man ahead of her already paid for her. When she told me this, I instantly assumed that the guy was either hitting on her or just had ulterior motives. Being the doubtful guy that I am, I started asking questions so that she would understand that this was not a random act of kindness, but was, in fact, a man who wanted to be thanked by such a beautiful young woman. When she told me that the man drove off, never to be seen again, I was a little confused. The more I thought about it, the more I was disappointed in myself. I would have to conclude that the reason it was tough for me to understand this man's random act of kindness is because of the lack of random acts of kindness that I preform on a daily basis. It was tough for me to comprehend a man doing an act and not wanting to be thanked for it because of my own need for self-praise. Why would I do a good deed that no one knew about? Hopefully, I will begin to preform acts of kindness for the sake of being kind, rather than for my own glorification. I realize that the great acts of the saints are recorded by those who admire their character, not by those saints that preform those great acts. An act is not great if it is done for one's own sake. A great deed is one that is done without self recognition. Hopefully, this lesson will help me to do more good and to recognize when others are doing good acts as well.

My First Blog

This being my first blogging experience, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Barrett Elkins and I am a twenty-six year old man on a journey. As in all journeys, there must be an end in mind. In my case, and I hope most cases, the end I am trying to reach is heaven. So, the purpose of this blog, being the selfish man that I am, is to help myself along my own spiritual journey. I posit that creating a blog which dictates my personal spiritual journey will cause me to constantly search for material about which to write. I am inclined to believe this search for material will cause me to focus more on the existance of the spiritual realm and less on worldly anxieties. Being more aware of the spiritual realm will cause me to confront my spiritual past, present, and more importantly, my future spiritual present. Since I am starting with the end in mind, I hope this journey leads me towards the ultimate end, which is, of course, heaven and communion with God. If anyone reads this, I hope my insights will help him or her on his or her own particular spiritual journey. I, like so many others, tend to put worldy things before God, and my prayer tonight is to start focusing more on what really matters and less on the small worldly details.