An extra day for blessing others

29 February has traditionally been a blessing for single women wishing to propose marriage. If you were a man living in Scotland, refusing to accept resulted in a large fine! This strange tradition is thought to have originated from St Bridget who petitioned St Patrick that woman should have more of an active role in choosing their husbands. As a result women were granted permission to propose … once every four years!

While it’s not marriage, I have a rather outlandish proposal for you: seeing as you’ve got an extra day of the year how about making the most of it and doing something that will allow others to get something of what we have as followers of Jesus!

Treat this February 29 as a day given for a purpose. How about challenging yourself to bless others around you? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting it’s a day for gimmicks and games but rather an opportunity to express something of our Father’s heart to his children who haven’t connected yet with what you and I have in Jesus.

Blessing carries a profound weight of ‘symbol’ with it. You see when we ‘bless’ others it is a metaphor of the greatest blessing that we have been graced with. I’m often asked ‘why?’ as I offer a free doughnut, a free bottle of water or free hugs.

Just before Christmas I was in Iceland doing some Christmas shopping (the small supermarket, not Reykjavik) and I noticed an elderly gent next in line had a 4 pint bottle of milk he was buying. I simply said, ‘Can I get that for you sir?’ He looked somewhat shocked at the offer and then smiled and said ‘yes please that would be lovely.’ He then proceeded to share how he had just been to the doctors for a check up and had been most anxious about it. I simply said, ‘I want you to know that God is with you, and He loves you.’ He said, ‘Thank you, I needed to know that.’ The blessing coupled with some simple words seemed to make his day and bring reassurance to him.

So here’s the challenge. Bless someone. Anyone. Just go for it and bless. I’m not going to list 101 things you could do. Instead how about asking God what it is that you could do. There’s a whole host of possibilities from buying someone a coffee to offering to pray for a friend or neighbour. What is it that you could offer? What have you been given by God which you could pass on? Perhaps it’s a gift of money to a local charity, a bunch of flowers to someone lonely in a local care home or a freshly baked cake for the drop in shelter. Whatever it is, go for it!

Chris Duffett is President elect of the Baptist Union in Great Britain and national evangelist with The Light Project, a group of people who aim to actively demonstrate the Christian message and train others to do the same.