Book Club: Book Review of Make Their Day

 

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Who doesn't want to make someone's day? Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with ideas to brighten the days of our family, friends, and strangers, so why not seek help from a best-selling author? In Make Their Day: 101 Simple, Powerful Ways to Love Others Well, Karen Ehman shares ideas across eight parts to help make someone's day a little better. From writing simple notes that you can include in your children's lunchboxes to become the church snack lady, there are 101 ways shared in this small paperback book to help you get started.

"We need to be lighting candles." 

Instead of letting the weariness of the news and social media get us down, we can be spreading the light – lighting candles – and sharing the goodness and glory of God in simple acts one by one. Karen Ehman shares her 101 ideas in eight parts: 

• In Your Circle of Friends 
• Within Your Own Family 
• Throughout Your Day and around Town 
• Across the Miles or Through the Screen 
• For Those Who Hurt or Need Help 
• Among the Household of Faith 
• On Holidays, Holy Days, or Just Because 
• By Opening Your Home 

The 142-page paperback book from Bethany House is designed in such a way that you can easily flip to which part you need at that moment and find one or more ideas you can enact to make someone's day in your immediate family, in your town, or in your church. There are some printables at the back that you can photocopy to help you get started making Scripture tags or sharing recipes of the authors with others. 

The ideas shared to Make Their Day are often accompanied by personal reminisces of the author in when she used the principle in her own life. For example, she shared how they made the day of their postal worker by having a day to honor him. Simple ideas to notice the necessary people at non-traditional times will help us show and share our appreciation of their hard work. 

Thoughtful Habits Abound 

I truly think as one reads through the book, they will find numerous ways that they can develop daily habits of being thoughtful and showing gratitude to those in one's life. On the back of the book, it also says that it will help you "reconnect with friends and family," "make the encouragement of others a priority," and "sprinkle kindness in a culture of cruel." What wonderful things to develop and foster! 

As I was reading Make Their Day, I found myself jotting down many page numbers for ideas of things that our family could do to encourage others, even in these uncertain times when families and churches are not able to get together in the same way they were previously. I particularly liked the idea of "time-travel to shop for a nostalgic pick-me-up." I know many people who would appreciate a trinket or reminder of something from their childhood – including me! I also loved the idea of creating handmade gifts for individuals and praying over that individual while creating the gift. What a wonderful way to brighten their day and lift their spirit to the Lord!

I would recommend Make Their Day to those who are seeking to find ways to give back to those around them and spiritually lift them up. Lighting a candle in the darkness does not have to be expensive or difficult. Among the 101 ways shared, there are many simple tasks that someone can do to make someone else's day.