A Legacy Of Kindness

A Legacy of Kindness

Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:16

My aunt and uncle were foster parents for twenty years, and during that time, they took in fifteen kids long term and adopted four. As a young girl, I watched how they took care of kids, loving them through challenging and joyful circumstances. They never made any grand speeches or gave any sermons to us kids about loving others; they just showed us by their lives, day in and day out, what it means to love others.

It was a lesson I carried into my adulthood as my husband and I talked about starting our own family. When I mentioned that I’d like to provide foster care for kids and told him of my experience watching my aunt and uncle all those years earlier, he readily agreed. For six years we, too, took in kids who needed a home, caring for twenty children and adopting two into our family forever.

I often think of my upbringing, how being kind and loving others were shown even more often than they were talked about. This example challenges me with my own family now to not just speak to my children about how they should behave but to also lead them with my actions. Kindness is not just a thought or an idea; it’s how we live out our very lives for others to see. I know my aunt and uncle would never have thought I’d follow their example by providing foster care; they just did what came naturally for them. But that kindness was passed on, not only to the kids in their home, but to me as well.

When we consider our lives and what we hope to pass on to others, what examples are we setting through our everyday lives and actions that would make someone else want to emulate us or follow in our footsteps? Are we letting our good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise our heavenly Father? What acts of kindness can we do today, to benefit not only the recipient but also others who may be watching our example?

—Kendra

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Show an act of kindness toward someone in front of your spouse, your kids, or a friend—not out of a desire to be praised, but to set an example you would want to be remembered for years from now.