Kindness

Kindness

Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you.

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, Kristin, Julie, and I did a year of kindness where we and our families performed one small or large act of kindness every day. At first it felt overwhelming. What could we possibly find to do every day? But as we got into the habit, our minds became trained to start to notice ways to be kind in the ordinary places we found ourselves. It became second nature to be kind. Our children began to see it as well and would regularly come up with ideas for some small way to show kindness to another.

That year changed us in many ways. On the surface, kindness sounds sort of weak or insignificant, but over the course of that year, we found out that kindness took much more grit and determination, much more laying down of our pride or our own desires, than we could have ever realized. Our hearts softened. We began to see God in a new way, and our love for him and his people grew. We began to listen to stories of people who were oppressed, and our own biases began to surface. But as we dealt with our own faults, God began to change us.

We certainly received a reward for our kindness, but it wasn’t what we’d expected. Instead of gaining a good reputation or financial reward, we saw God shape our hearts toward things and people that mattered to him. We were faced with our own uncomfortableness and asked to leave our preconceived notions behind. It changed our lives for the better because we now see God so much better.

When God speaks of kindness, it is often in the context of how we treat other people. Our kindness will reward us. How? By softening our hearts toward God and others. Our cruelty destroys us because when we harden our hearts toward God and others, we miss out on the joy, peace, and love that only following God affords us. Kindness has a way of rewarding us by making us more like Jesus, if we’ll let it.

Lord, thank you for the kindness that you extend toward me. Help me to turn and offer kindness to those around me. Amen.

-Kendra

One Good Step: Think about the kindness of God toward you, and then ask him to bring someone to mind that you can offer a small act of kindness to today.