The Kindness Jar

Natasha, Ryan, Rachel, Sarah, and Samuel F., ages 11, 9, 8, 5, and 3, California

Natasha, Ryan, Rachel, Sarah, and Samuel’s family has family home evening every Monday night. In fact, they plan around it and make it a priority so that nothing else takes its place. For one family home evening, they read “The Big Jar” from the March 2008 Friend. Afterward, they wrote down nice things about each family member on pieces of paper. They put them in a “kindness jar,” and their mom read them so that no one knew who had said what about each person. As their mom read the nice things, each person got a big smile on his or her face. “The Big Jar” and this activity helped the family be kinder to each other, and they won’t forget the wonderful compliments they gave and received.