Good Deeds Day #3: Counting Kindness (With a Twist)

This week’s Seeds of Deeds project requires you to write down in your journal or note-taking app all the gifts you receive this year. We are in 2026 now, but do the same thing if you see the video or read this information in any other year.

Write the date, the name of the giver, and the gift you received, whether it’s tangible or intangible. For example, we are barely in the 3rd month of 2026, and here are a few things I received unexpectedly:

1. My neighbor gave me a lovely diary in January. He is so sweet; he even wanted to put my name on it.
2. Another neighbor gave me fruits and vegetables not just once but twice since the year started—canned goods, coconuts, yams, pakchoi, oranges, etc.
3. Another neighbor went overseas and gave me a set of Bath & Body Works products.
4. A church sister I haven’t even met in person surprised me and sent me some money from overseas. We never had such a discussion; she doesn’t even know my address. 
5. A neighbor and friend recently gave me a bag of gungo and pepper.
6. But it’s not always tangible. My vehicle developed mechanical issues, and a stranger stopped by and helped me. 
7. A man at an ATM moved out of line and waited to the side so that I could take his place in the shade.

And I could go on and on, and if I were supposed to write all the gifts I received from my family, relatives, and friends, this list would be way too long.

Here’s what I want us to notice: if I hadn’t thought about this GDD project, I wouldn’t even have noticed how much I received in such a short time.

That is why the songwriter Johnson Oatman, Jr., encourages us to count our blessings and name them one by one.

Refrain:

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done;

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

So, write down the gifts people have blessed you with, and when times get difficult, refer to the list and remember that God cares for us. Although He blesses us in many ways, He will also bless us through the hands of other people.

God has used many of us to bless others, too, but this is not about what we have given. The Bible says we should give in secret. Whenever you give, don’t keep a list, and if you can, forget about it. 

Part of the reason I don’t want us to keep a list is that this may interfere with giving genuinely. We may be motivated to give because we want to boast about how many things we have given away during the year. Remember, God looks at the heart and will ascertain our motives for giving.

Here’s the twist. 

After you have kept the list for a full year, at the end of the year, review the list and give a similar gift to others in the new year, or give gifts that represent the amount of time you received in the last year. If possible, double the gift.

This way of giving does not replace your way of giving, meaning giving to people whom you would have given to anyway, as the need arises.

Remember to give God all the glory, express gratitude, pray for those who gave you, and those who didn’t give you, and keep on giving in secret.

Until next week, be blessed, stay blessed, and continue to be a blessing to others!

Kind regards,

Patrene Dawkins

Good Deeds Day

Disclaimer: The Good Deeds Day series is optional; you do not have to participate. If you choose to participate in this or any other GDD, you are fully responsible for your actions and associated risks.