If you are popping over after reading “The Gift of Hope,” I am honored to have you in my kitchen and hope you will visit often. There is always room at my kitchen table and the more the merrier!
If you have visited She Cooks before, you know that my passions are cooking for others and outreach. I combine my passions by cooking for those God places on my heart and serving at a local soup kitchen. Cooking may not be your passion so here are lots of different ways to reach out to others with the love and hope of Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, do it in His Name and do it with love 
- Bring dinner to a shut-in and stay and share the meal.
- Bring Christmas decorations, music, and a warm meal to an elderly person who doesn’t have family or friends nearby to help or to celebrate with.
- Collect socks, blankets and coats for the homeless.
- Spend your family vacation on a mission trip.
- One day each month, serve your family what a typical meal would be for a family living in extreme poverty and talk about it over dinner. The money you save could be used to sponsor a child through Compassion International. (See link to sponsor a child to the right!)
- Run errands for someone who is unable to run errands for themselves.
- Sing Christmas carols at a retirement center.
- Ask your pastor if there is a family within your congregation or community that needs some assistance this year. Anonymously provide gifts and food items for the family. Include a card from Jesus! This is a wonderful activity to do as a family.
- Call your local shelter and ask if they need help serving food or need blankets or other items.
- Send cards to troops overseas and/or help the family of a soldier who is overseas. I bet they would love phone cards!
- Visit children in the chronically and/or terminally ill ward of the hospital. Family members need time to spend at home with their other children and this provides them with a much-needed break. You can read to the kids or play board games or color with them.
- Secretly leave gifts or gift cards for families that you know could use a little help this year. Do this anonymously. Your family will have fun being Jesus and keeping the secret.
- As a family, fill a shoebox or two for Samaritans Purse.
- Bake some holiday goodies and take to a neighbor who you haven’t met or someone new to the area.
- Invite a teen over for dinner whom you know will not have much of a holiday this year. Invite them to join in with your family activities and feel the love of Christ in your home. This can open doors to share the Gospel with them too! (This is also a great idea for anyone who will be alone this Christmas.)
- Visit members of your church who are in the hospital.
- Pick a child from an Angel Tree and donate the needed items.
- Bake cookies for co-workers or neighbors and tie a Bible verse around them with a pretty ribbon.
These are just some ideas to get you started. I would love to hear your ideas for reaching out to others during the holiday season. And, remember, the lonely, the hungry, the cold, and the hurting, are lonely, hungry, cold and hurting all year around. Don’t stop reaching out when December comes to an end.
Sweetest Blessings,
LeAnn
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
For the first time I have visited this site. I live in India what is that I can do some thing through you to The Lord. Please inform by e mail. Please furnish addresses of your branches in India so that I can
personally visit them and do the needful.
Thank you.
Nothing more to add.
Thank you so much for your devotional this morning. My children and I are just beginning to discuss the holiday season. We have begun buying things to fill our shoeboxes with for OCC. I started this tradition with them two years ago when they were just 3 and 5. It’s never too early to make them mindful of others during the holidays…and the rest of the year for that matter. We also sponsor a girl named Mary from Kenya through Compassion. Thank you for your reminder this morning to keep our perspective and our eyes on Christ this season. It is way too easy to get caught up in all this world tells us (and our children) is important about christmas. The truth is we as believers know the reason for the season and I am very grateful for your devo today as well as your blog filled with great ideas!! I pray you have a wonderful holiday season this year! I will be checking in on your blog more and more as Christmas approaches, the recipes here are wonderful!!!
Thank you again!
Angel
Thanks for the devotional & your blog post. I had thought about doing a Samaritan’s Purse box with my 4yr old son & your devotion reminded me to follow through:) Thanks for the other ideas as well.
~Blessings~
Your devo. & blog reminded me to do the Sam. Purse box with my 4 yr old son. I think he is old enough to understand what it is about (at least to a certain degree:) Thanks for the other ideas as well. One other way I involved my son last year was to have him hand the Christmas cards to our neighbors. I included a verse with each card & we went to the houses one evening & my son handed the card to each person-anyone can do this with their child as it is an easy thing to write out just a few more cards & then take your son or daughter next door or across the street-it teaches them to care about others in just a small way.
LeAnn, what a timely reminder about how to reach out to others. In September I started feeding my local firemen. I have taken them huge pots of soup, beef and noodles and yummy desserts. These men are so appreciative of having the home cooked meals and being remembered. I also let them know each time that I am praying for them.
I will be participating in the blanket, hat, gloves and scarves drive for the homeless and working at our local soup kitchen. It is a great way to let God use us to bless others and also to show us that the problems we think are so huge in our lives are just minimal compared to what others are going thru. It is very humbling reaching out to others. I think I am the one who actually receives the biggest blessing.
Blessings to you and Nick dear sister!
Thanks for the ideas of other ways to reach out to the community. I’m a single mom of a 14-yr -old son and we’ve recently moved to a new town. There’s some great ideas for ways we can reach out to our new neighbors. We’ve always done outreach for our soldiers and veterans, and organized care package donation drives. Your blog has offered some new inspiration. Thanks so much!
One way I have been blessed was through an anonymous gift of a $20 bill folded and securely placed in the gas “door” of my car. My husband and I were struggling with finances at the time, and when it was time to put gas in the car, the money was right there! This could be a real blessing to a family in need.
LeAnn,
This is my first visit to your blog (I’m not good at blogging or the computer).
Thank you for your devotion this morning and this blog. It has been a great reminder to me to reach out to others.
I am 70 years old and God has worked greatly in my life the past few months.
I will be moving 525 miles away in six weeks to be near my son. With that being Christmas season, putting some of your suggestions into practice will be a great way for me to meet new friends and share God’s blessings!
Thank you SO much!
I can’t think of anything else to add to that list. You covered a lot of great ideas and most of them can be done year-round. Thanks for the great post!
Thank you so much for your inspiring a post. I have been praying about sponsoring a child and what other ways we can help those less fortunate. This year we are going to give gifts from “Jesus” catalogues, like farm animals and mosquito netting, instead of buying more junk for our family’s houses. Thank you for reminding us to wrap hope around those who need it most. – Jillian
Christmas is my favorite holiday even though I have mixed emotions when this season comes around. I love to give give give but my pocket book doesn’t always allow it. One way I reach out to my neighbors that help me with my yard throughout the summer season I make them homemade goodies to let them know that I appreciate all they do.
Thank You so much for your devotion today and reminding me of the true reason for Christmas and how I should be spending my time during this season. I love Christmas but so many years I have been so stressed out with all the business and I don’t want to do this, this year. I hope to read your book and maybe get me organized.
LeAnn,
My children are getting older and I feel so jaded by the holidays and the “must-haves” that have ruled our world the past Christmases. We are scaling back and trying to teach our three children the meaning of serving others. Thank you for the insight of Compassion International, and an alternative Christmas to the one the world celebrates.
My husband and I have talked about doing a family gift to someone who needs it for at least the past 3 years. Your post has made the decision for us this year. Our new tradition will be to meet the needs of a family in our community or in the world.
Blessings!
I stumbled across your blog this morning and I am so glad that I did! I am loving reading through your previous articles and being inspired to help others and with recipes to use in the kitchen
I work at a Bible College with about 60 students. My husband and I lead a small group of these students and tonight we are baking cookies to deliver to the nurses at our hospital in town. We are also going to be filling OCC boxes within a couple of weeks with this same small group. We are excited that our students in the group are initiating ideas of giving with no strings. Just the other day, the students went out into the community and raked leaves. I think they came back with over 30 garbage bags full of leaves!
I am encouraged to see these young people serving and desiring to bless others without expectation of return. And I am encouraged to read of others on here and all of your ideas to give to and bless others!
What a fabulous post! I love your heart and giving spirit! I just want to hug you! This year I added a Community Serivce component to my preschool. We do a project a month. For the holidays this year, we are adopting a family and providing them with a Christmas dinner and then we will be making handmade Christmas ornaments. These ornaments will be placed on a tree that has been dedicated to a wonderful woman’s husband. He went to heaven in May and this will be her first Christmas without him. We will be making ornmments that represent the things he loved. The fact that they will be made by the sweet hands of my three year old students guarentees each one will be made with love. Blessings to you all!
Oh wow. How I needed to read this devotion this morning. I am a single mom who shares the Holiday’s with my exhusband. The stress of not having my girls this Christmas and not getting time off work as I ususally during Christmas break due to a change in company policy has left me feeling empty and it’s only October. How I long to enjoy my favorite time of year. I mean really enjoy it without the stress and hurrying about. I can’t wait to read your book. I think it is just the encouragement I need. Thank you for sharing your heart with us.
Phone cards are a great gift idea. Several years ago I gave some to my alma mater’s ROTC to send to alums that are serving our country. Recently, I had a nephew serving in the military and I know how much a phone call lifted his mother’s/my sister’s spirit. Sure, she had emails from him but hearing his voice was so nice.
Thank you for today’s devotion. My four children are grown and we usually buy one present by choosing names. This year we want to change it up and pool our money as an outreach from our family. I am really excited. Your devotional was a confirmation!
I would really love to start this kind of tradition of loving others in need with my son–he is only 2, but he is already singing “Jesus Loves Me” and learning how to be “nice” and make others happy. I would love to change the focus of the holidays to one of service and love for other people. Selfishness is not healthy–even non-believers know that.
Thanks for letting the Lord use you to give me a nudge in the right direction.
Blessings!
Carissa in eastern Iowa
I enjoyed reading your devotion this morning, as I always do with the P31 devotions. I am especially thinking about this coming Christmas season with a little anxiety because our family is in the final stages of an international adoption and praying we get our son by Christmas. It’s not looking very probable for this to happen, but we are still believing God can work a miracle. In light of this added child, we know finances will be slimmer this year and I need some great tips for making the most of this season without having my current 3 children feeling as if things were completely different than the past. Help – your e-book sounds like a great help for me right now!
Wow! I was already getting stressed over people putting on Facebook that there are only 60 some odd days left until Christmas! Reading todays devotion and seeing the list of alternative things to do has changed my feeling of stress to a feeling of excitement!!! I can’t wait to talk to my girls (all teenagers) about doing a few of the things on your list this year! I LOVE the suggestion of phone cards for the troops! We are from a military family and I know how hard it is to be so far away during the holidays. Also we always do the shoe boxes, so I need to get started on that! Thanks for the inspiration and the change of feelings!
Blessings,
Jennifer
Thank you for today’s devotion. Although it did remind me of the upcoming hectic season it also encouraged me to slow down and try to do things to glorify God this year!!! I’m getting a copy of your book to read before the season “officially” begins!
Thank You so much for sharing these wonderful ideas. I would like to add one~~~Supply a meal for those families staying at a local Ronald McDonald House. After the meal, lead a simple game of BINGO or something else of you choice for whoever wants to stay. If you are able, supply gifts for the children there or represented there. If you can’t do all that, do what you can. You may choose to get a small group you are a part of involved.~~~I am suggesting this because this is a way which my family has been touched as we went through my son’s cancer. It is a wonderful ministry.
Thank You for all your suggestions.
Loved the ideas of giving to others for Christmas! My grandmother and mother always had open doors and open arms for anyone to join the family for the holidays. I am also continuing the tradition but in a little different way. We are currently living in China, so many of our friends do not know much about the holiday except Santa and shopping. What a blessing it is to be able to welcome them into our home and show them the true meaning of Christmas! Thanks for the great ideas! Look forward to your deliciously creative recipes too!
Thanks for the reminder in time to do something about it! I always have the best of intentions every year, but I am ashamed to say, not enough gets accomplished. This year, I vow to do better, even though we have less this year. We are going to do it!
This is such a beautiful post. What a wonderful reminder before the holiday season begins. Thank you for sharing.
How wonderful our God is. Im going through some difficult circumstances and decided the best way to take my mind of myself. Would be by helping someone else. So this morning i asked God to show me how i could be a blessing to someone….and now you’ve provided me with a bunch if ways i can easily do just that. Thank you for a very timely devotion. =)
Thanks for your reminders to reach out to others especially this time of year. Another idea is to assist residents of a nursing home send Christmas cards. Often this task is too difficult for them to tackle. My grandmother is in a facility and we help her and others by taking their address book and making lables of all their loved ones addresses, and return address lables. We buy them Christmas cards or birthday cards and stamps. That way they only have to sign their name and put on the lables to communicate with loved ones. It makes them feel more independent and less shut off from family and friends, and it only took us a small amount of time to do it. Thanks for all you do!
Thank you for the ideas. We have struggled around Christmas because we do not live near our families. We have 4 children and it seems like the holiday season goes by so quickly. I really want to make a habit of reaching out and making Christmas about what we can do for others.
I read the post today and was inspired to sponosr a child through the “Compassion” program. I just wanted to encourage others to check out that web site and consider this. Even if you just sponsor a child for one month, it can mean so much to a child! Also, remember the Christmas Shoebox program… A cheap, fun way to help out other children! If you have young children, let them help fill the shoe box. My two girls love to pick out items to fill the shoeboxes with …
Thanks for being a voice for Compassion…We love our sponsored children! Our “guy” is turning 19 this year…he is a handsome young man who we have watched grow up! We decided to support a little girl this year…and she is a sweetie! Compassion does wonders with each of these children, individually and by the help of sponsors! As we give, we are blessed…by them and by the LORD. It’s a win-win situation!
As a missionary in a foreign country it is sooo hard to “do Christmas” Thanks for all the ideas to keep the meaning in the holiday!