Has someone ever brought you a lasagna when your freezer was already stuffed full? Or maybe you’ve shown up in a neighbor’s yard with your lawnmower, then realized someone already cut the grass.

It can feel weird, right? You want to demonstrate gratitude or serve someone, but the effort doesn’t quite land.

Kent Annan and Jamie Aten have seen helpfulness misses like these happen on a global scale in their work at the Humanitarian Disaster Institute.

“We’ve seen many well-intentioned good Samaritans come forward to help others,” they write in “Welcome to The Better Samaritan.”

“Unfortunately, not all good Samaritans are helpful. Well-intentioned, energetic people (often Christians, although these can be any religion) are so moved by a crisis that they offer uninvited help that turns out to be less than helpful.”

If you want to increase in helpfulness this year, The Better Samaritan blog and podcast are designed to, well, help you with just that. Be encouraged as you learn more about matching your helpful heart with the needs of others, and the ways your family can grow in both giving and receiving help.